This month we begin a book reading series on the problems in Sri Lanka’s education system and possible solutions. We will do this by looking at Ruptures in Sri Lanka’s Education, a collection of articles by Panduka Karunanayake, a Professor of Clinical Medicine at the University of Colombo.
The book describes some of the crises in today’s education in Sri Lanka, with a focus on higher education and an exploration of the notion of “free” education. We shall be reading the following chapters/articles (one each month): Periodising Modern Education in Sri Lanka (from 1832 to date); Understanding Free Education (including an interpretation of the Kannangara Reforms); University Privatisation on the ‘Indigenous Model’ (calling for home grown solutions, examining the ‘tuition’ industry, and exploring social justice issues); and Education’s ‘Three Es’ and the McUniversities (the ‘Three Es’ being Equity, Effectiveness and Efficiency, and dealing with the modernization and massification of education).
We hope that reading and discussing this book together will help us understand the history, inadequacies, and opportunities that exist in this system, and how we should approach them as Christian academics. We look forward to having you join us!