Sri Lanka Education Textbook Error Sparks Political Outcry and CID Inquiry
A major issue regarding education in Sri Lanka has turned into a political row. The Education Secretary, Nalaka Kaluwewa, made the move to hand over documents to the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) after he found out that the name of a website not suitable for children was included in a class six English textbook.
This was going on at the same time that educational restructuring was going on with the aim of changing the school curriculum. The Secretary’s report requests an exhaustive investigation to ascertain whether the website was included by mistake or if it was done on purpose to weaken the reform process.
An appraiser of random print-outs of teaching modules detected the name of the site “Buddy.net” in a section for students. This site is for adults and children should not visit it. The Secretary pointed out that developing a curriculum is a long and careful process with many stages of drafting, editing, and even final printing, and therefore he doubted how such a big mistake could slip through all the checks.
The Ministry of Education has initiated an internal audit to find out if there was any mistake on the part of the National Institute of Education, which is responsible for the development of textbooks, but CID’s assistance was solicited to eliminate the possibility of external infiltration.
In the midst of the dispute, the critics questioned if this was a mere typographical error. Some specialists suggested the intended name might have been that of an earlier chat service called “ebuddy.net,” and someone accidentally dropped the “e.” Even with this scenario, still, the majority would claim that the error brings into the open the larger issue of lack of monitoring and poor quality control.
The political backlash increased in intensity when the former MP Wimal Weerawansa not only condemned the education reforms themselves but also connected the textbook error to what he called the larger cultural issues.
He accused the government of enforcing a plan that would eventually destroy Sri Lankan values and the future of the country. Furthermore, the Deputy Minister of Education has already stated that the controversial article is going to be removed from the textbooks because it is not there by chance.
His comments were directed at what he called the government’s wrong priorities like not improving university access while allowing the propagating of changes in primary education. The incident has divided public opinion, with some inspectors openly supporting the reforms, while others say that the issue is more serious than just an error.
The whole matter has ignited a huge public debate. There were quite a number of parents and teachers who said that they were taken aback by the fact that the reference had been allowed through the screening process and was now in the textbooks, meant for the little kids.
As if to say that review processes should be very strictly followed for schoolbooks, they were already encroaching on the territory of young minds. Then again, some were not even sure whether technology references that are already quite old are at all relevant for teaching in the modern classroom.
Public uproar made the Ministry of Education take action by announcing that they will rectify the matter, reprint the corrected modules, and beef up the checks in the future for the preparation of textbooks. The different political voices expressing their criticism and support, as well as the civil society, are keeping an eye on the situation as the CID institutes its investigation and the education sector tries to cope with the incident.