Ending the Elitist Factor

Sri Lanka’s higher education institutions are facing a barrage of criticism. Many observers point to the severe shortfall of resources, in terms of both funds and manpower, spanning several decades, arguing that it has diminished the quality of education. Others argue that universities are failing to produce graduates whose skills are demanded by the labour market, who can contribute meaningfully to the development of the nation. This debate is largely conducted without a historical perspective. The evolution of tertiary education and educational policy in Sri Lanka shows that the tension between providing a quality education and opening access to a wider mass of students has been a recurring concern since the establishment of the University of Ceylon in 1942.

At the turn of the last century, formal education was accessible only to a very small number of people in the country: a mere 2% of the population was English literate in 1901. Under colonial rule, education policy was based on the needs of the colonial administration and aimed at creating an elite body of native middle class who ‘cultivated European attainments’ and served as intermediaries to the masses. With moves towards independence, policy makers, such as C. W. W. Kannangara, pushed to reform the education sector. The concept of Central Schools, introduced in 1940, was a pivotal change which helped to provide free education in the English medium to the rural population. Education was slowly beginning to change from the natural privilege and bastion of the elite to a democratic right.

The University of Ceylon was established after prolonged agitation over many decades. When it opened in 1942, however, the University admitted only around 950 students. This elitism was intentional. A former Registrar, quoted in W. Warnapala’s The Making of the System of Higher Education in Sri Lanka  (2011), notes the University of Ceylon ’… was intended to be an isolated teaching institution preparing a chosen few for traditional degree courses in selected disciplines and cut away from the people at large.’ The residential nature of the campus was a key pillar of the university’s design, with Sir Ivor Jennings extolling what was then known as the Oxbridge Model, where scholars ‘lived a common life in which they learned to adapt themselves to each other’s ways, discussed each other’s personal problems, argued about everything from religion to racing, read books that were not prescribed, played games together, and developed a high sense of communal loyalty.’ Despite this elite, socially-removed strain of the idyllic, the university’s ordinance clearly stated that the university was open to all persons irrespective of gender, race, creed, class or religious beliefs.

The University of Ceylon’s elite foundations/philosophy were challenged from the start. There were also popular demands for university education to be made available in the national languages. Consequently, the Government of the day began expanding university education, first upgrading the two leading Buddhist centres of learning at the time, the Vidyodaya and Vidyalankara Pirivenas, to university status. Also, the number of admissions to the University of Ceylon rose with the switch over to Sinhala and Tamil as the mediums of instruction; for the first time in 1960, an opportunity was given to candidates who had received a secondary education in the local languages to seek admission to the University of Ceylon. Furthermore, on the basis that a qualified applicant had every right to a university education, the Government compelled the University of Ceylon to admit a large batch of non-residential students to the Arts Faculty in 1961. The founding pillars of the University of Ceylon, elitism and the fully-residential campus, were eroded with this expansion in enrolment. Thus, university education became the means to socioeconomic empowerment and mobility for many people in post-colonial Sri Lanka.

The number of university admissions has continued to rise over time (Figure 1). By 2013, close to 120,000 students were studying in the 15 universities under the University Grants Commission. From under 10% in 1942, the number of women undergraduates had risen to over 60% by 2013.  Much still needs to be done, as only around 17% of all eligible students were admitted to universities in 2013. Nevertheless, access to a university education is available to more students than ever before. While we constantly seek ways to improve the tertiary education system in the country, these are achievements to be proud of and valued.

Sources: Based on data published by the University Grant Commission from 1975-2013 and Ministry of Education annual reports between 1942-1970

Originally published in the LMD June 2015 issue