It has been reported that the government has focused on teaching in English medium from the first grade of the school. If this is true, it is an attempt to abandon the official language policy in education, which has been accepted as the medium of education so far. ‘Swabasha’ policy is a key component of the Kannangara Education Policy. It is also an important educational principle that is universally accepted.
The official language policy (‘Swabasha’ policy ) in education is not meant to learn and teach the same language throughout the life. It is about provide at least primary education in the child’s mother tongue. The social indicators related to education in our country were so good because of the priority given to this ‘Swabasha’ policy education.
What President Gotabhaya Rajapaksa’s , ‘patriotic government’ is now trying to do is to kick this important principle. Kick it! I would like to remind you in advance that the government will inevitably have to break its leg.
Our Sinhala language and Tamil language are two rich languages that originated in this Asian region. The culture of the people of our country was mainly created on the basis of these languages. The government is going to kick off this cultural heritage.
Learning from the mother tongue does not mean not learning or condemning other languages. English is an important language. It is a very important language for us in this age. After completing the primary education in the mother tongue, the child should be given the ability to obtain secondary education in English if required. It can be done not by teaching in English but by teaching English correctly. Even those who do not have a practical understanding of governing the country are preparing to teach in English without even teaching English properly. Yes degraders! We know from experience that there are many scoundrels in this country who believe that the root cause of all the problems in this country is the people who don’t have fluency in English.
There is nothing wrong with getting higher education in English or in any other international languages. We have to train our children for that, but only a cultural assassin can come forward to kill the mother tongue to do that.
We would like to remind to this the brainwashed inferiors, the advice that given by scholar Kumaratunga Munidasa, ‘Start it in your own language’.
-Karunaratne Paranavithana-