The Education Minister has transferred
Upali Gunesekera who has been the Principal of Royal College for over 12 years,
with immediate effect.
It is NO secret that Royal is the most
famous school bar none in Sri Lanka, and a mafia of ex-Royalists, including the
PM rule both the Political and the Business landscape in Sri Lanka.
http://asianmirror.lk/news/item/14046-royal-college-principal-transferred-following-multiple-charges
I will not come into any conclusion on
what it is he may have done, as that is not in the public purview at present
and should after an immediate investigation be resolved one way or the other,
as otherwise the whole prestige of this school is under a cloud if there is a
Principal who has acted outside his purview to profit, from his position.
It is no secret that brokers charged
between Rs1m and 1.5M to enter a boy into Royal, 1st grade, and also
it is no secret that once you are entered into Royal, whether you pass or fail
the grade 5 exam you get automatically promoted to grade 6. Due to this there
have been a well nigh impossibly chance for those who get the highest marks in
the grade 5 exam, to gain entry into Royal as there are just not enough places in
the classes. The school has 10,000+ students.
So it comes as no surprise that the Education
Minister has insisted that this year AT LEAST 40 boys (the equivalent of a whole
class) be entered via the grade 5 exam results. I am NOT arguing if this is a good
thing or not, as in many cases the choice of whether it is good depends on the personal
circumstances of the student, and it is with the Parent, the present school Principal,
a child Psychologist and the child, who collectively should make the decision. From
experience about 50% of those who enter benefit, 50% suffer, so the trick is to
only try one’s best using the procedure outlined to only enter those who will benefit,
and to that there is NO scientific basis either.
Until allegations are fully investigated,
I hold judgment, though as in one of the links, one MUST not use the daughter of
the Principal’s argument in any way. The usually active OLD boys seem to have missed
a beat here, and don’t seem to be able to be at the forefront of ensuring there
is fair play in this matter!
Royal has something like 14 classes of 45 students each. Of which at Grade 6 4 classes will enter 180 students based on Grade 5 results and minimum marks. Education minister wants another class of 40 to make it 15 classes at the same grade as he has found 15 classes from Grade 7 onwards and wants to know why it was not so from Grade 6 onwards, was it because he was letting in 40 odd students into Grade 7 through mysteriously questionable means? Are many of the Royal College teachers also complicit in this scam. Hope all will be revealed sooner rather than later.
ReplyDeleteRoyal is 12 times the size of what a normal school enrollment should be. It is completely the fault of our Education system, that has created a monster of Education, and unlike in the past where people generally knew all in their batch, this is even NOT possible now.
ReplyDeleteSo the benefit of networking is also lost. It is time to make a pledge to reduce student numbers to say 8,000 and prepare a paper on how it is done.
Lets face it 80% of students now live over 4 kms from the school, so why can't they go somewhere else? Becuase there is nothing comparable! So what are you going to do about it? Establish schools. There is NO MORE space for new schools, and with the shift of population to the center there is MORE pressure on existing schools to increase space for more students!
A vicious cycle if ever there was one, leading to a disaster. Go to the 12th grade at Royal, you will find NO pupils today. Go to the 13th grade and you may find very few, as most have gone to tuition classes! So why go to Royal? even if the teaching is not good enough to pass A levels. We have got to start the correction somewhere.
It is obvious from here, the teachers are merely opportunists taking advantage of a situation for their own benefit. So you are bound to lose.