The Hon. Ajith P. Perera

¶ 01 Hon. Presiding Member, at a time when a revolutionary change in education is needed—and when a Government with a public mandate exists to deliver it—we all speak of free education, question it and extol its values. In 1943, the late C.W.W. Kannangara, through struggles both at the grassroots and in the legislature, ensured constitutional recognition that rich and poor alike should receive free education from the State. A key element was equality—without segregating scholarship holders or not, Sinhala, Tamil, Muslim—all children had the right to education without private payment.

¶ 02 But we forget something: after passing the Free Education Bill, Kannangara also focused on developing the physical infrastructure and established a Central College for every electorate, for secondary education, and all those schools taught in English medium. My father studied up to Grade 8 at Gonaduwa Kanishta Vidyalaya, passed the scholarship, and then studied at Wadduwa Central in English medium. Not only Central Colleges—there were hundreds of bilingual schools teaching in Sinhala and English; some taught only in English. Thus, under Kannangara’s vision, talented rural children learned in English.

¶ 03 Eighty years later, poverty or wealth largely depends on whether one knows English. In 1943, it depended on proximity to the rulers; today, though we are ruled by our own, the best jobs and highest tiers are captured by those proficient in English—no doubt. Hence the mushrooming of international schools. Those who can afford it send their children there; national schools also try to run English-medium classes; some have separate English-medium streams.

¶ 04 Hon. Prime Minister, I need not explain the advantage of English proficiency. Entering university with good English greatly improves the quality of one’s degree learning. We also know the difficulty of learning English after entering university or Law College. Even for technical diplomas—tourism or other fields—English opens doors; without it, life is hard. What is the solution?

¶ 05 In 2012, as an Opposition MP, I presented a Private Member’s Motion: every school should conduct primary education in the mother tongue (Sinhala/Tamil) and dual-medium education mandatorily in English from secondary level. Primary is sufficient to develop mastery in one’s mother tongue. For Tamil or Sinhala speaking children—of any community—primary suffices for the mother tongue. But to access scientific education—to become scientists, lawyers, or pursue any profession— we need…