Dr. Badi-ud-din Mahmud and his contribution to education
Text of speech delivered by Higher Education Minister Prof. Wiswa Warnapala at the Memorial Meeting on the late Dr. Badi-ud-din- Mahmud organized by the All Ceylon Union of Muslim League Youth Fronts at Nagarodaya Centre on June 17, 2009
Sri Lanka, at this given moment of time, is going through a period of transformation, which has its own global aspects, and it is in this particular context that I would like to make an assessment of the career of the late Dr. Badi-ud-din- Mahmud who, in my view, belonged to a unique generation of politicians, who, through their illustrious careers, contributed to the process of political, economic and social development in the country. Sri Lanka, as all third world polities, which emerged out of colonialism, had a pantheon of leaders who, despite ethnic diversity and social complexity, advocated a common front on issues of nationalism.
Nationalist movement
Education was not only in English but also largely Christian in content, and it was this fact that kept the Muslim Community away from the then main stream of education.
The adoption of this attitude, though part of a community in a traditional society, led to the backwardness of the Muslim Community; it was primarily educational backwardness which limited the political involvement in a colonial society, and it was this characteristic feature which interfered with the emergence of a leadership based on nationalistic demands and religious ideals.
It was this important reason the absence of an educated elite or the absence of a powerful nucleus of an intellectual community-which kept them away from the emerging nationalist platform which, then, was dominated by the English educated elite belonging to both Sinhalese and Tamils.
In the 19th Century, certain Muslim leaders were disturbed by this trend, with which they got themselves isolated from the main strands of the nationalist movement which then was pluralistic in character, and the emergence of M.C. Siddie Lebbe, a lawyer by profession and a social worker as well, was a landmark in the awakening of the Muslim community to the main issues of the day.
The fundamental question which attracted his attention, in the form of a priority, was education, many of its ills were later corrected by the late Dr. Badi-ud-din- Mahmud.
Education, in any society, is the principal catalyst of change, and it is through education that processes of change could be generated to destroy the forces of traditionalism and thereby open the doors for modernization.
Siddie Lebbe, in the form of a visionary, began to preach the importance of education with a view to changing the conservative outlook of the Muslim community which, historically, remained embedded in commerce and trade.
Muslim community
It was Siddie Lebbe who laid the foundation for the regeneration of the Muslim community, and thereafter, in the first half of the century, the Muslim community entered the main stream of the nationalist movement.
The growth of the movement and the alliance with other communities experienced a set back in 1915, and only in 1920 that we witness the emergence of an effective Muslim political leadership, and this, again, was associated with the career of an educationist.
T. B. Jayah was essentially an educationist, he did not have business interests. He, as a leading educationist, became the sole spokesman for Muslim interests in regard to both political and Constitutional reforms.
T. B. Jayah, as a Member of the Executive Committee on Education, played a key role in formulating educational policy and he tried to generate an interest among the Muslim community to make use of the changes that are taking place in the system of education.
The social demand model of education, under which education was made free from kindergarten to the University, was being framed, and he, as an educationist, knew that this would ensure opportunities to the children of the Muslim community.
The late Dr. Badi-ud-din-Mahmud, probably derived inspiration from his illustrious predecessors - Siddie Lebbe and T. B. Jayah, and he, as an equally qualified educationist with a radical background, recognized the utility of education for both political and social change in a given country.
Though the Free Education Scheme came into existence in 1944, all the educational policy initiatives incorporated in the package were not implemented because, though its author Dr. C.W.W. Kannangara was interested in a total transformation through education, the political leadership of the period, specially those belonging to the D. S. Senanayake group in the State Council, were not very enthusiastic about the full implementation of 1944 proposals.
Therefore it took nearly two decades for a Government to understand the significance of a national system of education.
He saw education as a major factor in the rapid expansion of the democratic process, and it was this belief which compelled him to take bold policy initiatives to expand the base of primary and secondary education in Sri Lanka.
The education system, though based on the Free Education Scheme, was a hybrid system where there two types of institutions - the Denominational Schools and the State schools.
Quality education
The masses continued to enjoy poor quality education while the elite and the upper classes, through the establishment of denominational schools, enjoyed a quality education. Though the Central schools were established to cater to rural children in the rural areas, it did not offer education on the basis of the concept of equality of educational opportunity.
The late Dr. Badi-ud-din- Mahmud took the view that education was free, ‘but what was free was a good education for the few and a bad education for the many’.
In other words, it was his view that all benefits of education should reach everybody on an equitable basis. Commenting on this aspect of education, Dr. Badi-ud-din- Mahmud, before the take over of the Assisted Schools, stated that ‘from the point of view of quality, free education was a mirage than a reality, in so far as the masses were concerned’.
This shows that he had his own ideas on Free Education, and it was his commitment to educational change that, in the end, culminated in the establishment of a national system of education with a common curriculum.
Today, because of the many policy initiatives to which he gave leadership, Sri Lanka has the highest literacy rate in this part of the world, and this human resource base could be used for the acceleration of social and economic development.
One can link the political consciousness and electoral participation rates to the rate of literacy, by which I do not propose to devalue the role of political parties and pressure groups.
They are agents of political mobilization in a democratic polity. In the sphere of primary school enrollment, Sri Lanka has achieved universal enrollment and equality of educational opportunity has been achieved.
In addition, absolute gender equality has been achieved. Gender inequality remains a feature of every region in the world, though it is most pronounced in South Asia. Women are said to be 70 percent of the world’s poor and they are vulnerable to poverty. Therefore it is through education that they can be integrated into development.
Sri Lanka has achieved great deal by providing women with greater access to educational opportunities and this trend began under the late Dr. Badi-ud-din- Mahmud who expanded the educational opportunities for the Muslim community.
The route from the Ordinary Level Examination to the Advanced Level Examination has been expanded, and today, nearly 298,000 or more sit the A/L examination and this is an index to the nature of the educated workforce in Sri Lanka.
This expansion was primarily due to the take over of the schools in 1962. It was through the Assisted Schools that some kind of elitism was promoted. It became useful in the early phase of colonialism but in the post-colonial period such institutions became dysfunctional as democracy and representative government depended on a good system of education.
One important result of the Free Education Scheme was the dethronement of English and the recognition of Swabasha, which, according to certain critics, recognized as the major factor of intellectual retardation.
I do not want comment on it. Dr. Badi-ud-din- Mahmud championed the need to educate children in their mother tongue, and this was opposed by the English educated elite which was a microscopic minority.
He wanted the Muslim children to study Sinhala and with this innovation he gave a new interpretation to the use of the mother tongue as the medium of instruction. It was this decision which helped the Muslim community to integrate itself with the majority community. It undoubtedly helped the Muslim community to emerge as a vital segment of the educated in Sri Lanka.
National integration
He partially rejected the linguistic basis of the narrow nationalism, and so language as the basic instrument of national integration; it was this principal which compelled him to recommend to the Muslim community to study in the Sinhala medium and it, apart from strengthening integration offered numerous advantages to the Muslim community.
Dr. Badi-ud-din- Mahmud was of the view that after nearly one and half centuries of British rule, little less than 8 percent of the population were literate in English. Nearly forty years ago, such arguments were supported by those politicians who stood for an egalitarian society. In their view, such educational changes were necessary to establish a society based on both equality and opportunity.
What the late Dr. Badi-ud-din- Mahmud envisaged through his realistic educational reforms was the establishment of a system of education where there is no monopoly of the socially and economically privileged strata in the society.
Educational privileges
He did not want to confine educational privileges to a small minority of the privileged. Dr. Badi-ud-din- Mahmud, as Minister of Education, gave a realistic expression to the social demand model of education through which an educational explosion has been created in Sri Lanka.
It was during his time that some clear priorities were established in education, and one such priority was teacher training program established in teacher Training Colleges. Like Dr.C.W.W. Kannangara, Dr. Badi-ud-din- Mahmud recognized ‘the proper training of teachers as the key to educational reforms’; he wanted a quality teacher, and took measures to establish Teacher Training Colleges for professional training of teachers.
With the take over of school in 1960 under the Assisted Schools and Training Colleges (Special Provisions Act No. 5 of 1969) the Assisted Training Colleges which were under the management of religious denominations came under the control of the Director of Education.
Teacher training in Sri Lanka had not proceeded on a planned basis, and it was under Dr. Badi-ud-din- Mahmud that the system was re-organized on a planned basis. He made an attempt to develop professionalism within the community of teachers.
The professionalism, which came to be built in the last three decades, has now visibly declined due to over-trade unionization of the school teachers in Sri Lanka, who, in my view have become tools in the hands of a political party which seeks to disrupt every institution in the name of change.
This decline in the role and the quality of the teacher is certain to have a devastating effect on both quality of education and the discipline of the children in the schools.
Recognizing the importance of higher education for social and economic development, he pioneered a number of important changes in the field of higher education.
It was he who broke the Oxbridge mould in the Sri Lankan University system and diversified it with additional universities and other tertiary institutions. He took measures to establish the University of Jaffna in the seventies; the University of Ceylon, established in 1942, was the only unitary University, and its dominance was gradually broken.
It was he who wanted the Second Arts Faculty in Colombo out of which the University of Colombo was born, and it took over the Colombo part of the University of Ceylon. The Second Arts Faculty was seen as a retrograde step but later it developed into a fully fledged Faculty.
Though the system of higher education came to be transformed with the Universities established in the sixties, no attempt was made to expand the access.
Today the access has been expanded and the system has 72,000 students. Yet another innovation of his was the introduction of external examinations; though there was a tradition of external examinations, no decision was taken to allow the University of Ceylon to conduct external examinations.
Sri Lankan students enjoyed this facility from 1881 onwards; they sat the London University examinations as external candidates. Mr. S.W.R.D. Bandaranaike, as the Minister of Local Government, moved a resolution in the State Council requesting the University of Ceylon to conduct external examinations.
This was in 1945. D. S. Senanayake opposed the resolution on the ground that it would interfere with the autonomy of the University. Though the motion was passed but no action was taken to implement it because Sir Ivor Jennings opposed it. He was always for an elitist type of University education and advocated a restricted intake into the University.
It was in 1961 that the principal Act was amended and provision was created for the conduct of external examinations and thereby expanded the access to higher educational opportunities. In this respect too, the credit should go to Dr. Badi-ud-din- Mahmud, who as a far -sighted politician, made a note worthy contribution to the modernization of both education and higher education in Sri Lanka.
It was he who implemented some of the reforms of the Kannangara package which came along with the social demand model of education. It was he who laid the foundation for the establishment of an integral link between education and economic growth.
But as economic growth occurs, there is a rising demand for skills; the growing complexity of the economy requires a complex and diverse range of kills at all levels. In order to meet these challenges, a network of Technical Colleges was created under his guidance.
In this way he took the initiative in establishing Technical Colleges; technical education remained neglected till the appointed a Committee of Inquiry to inquire into the subject. The appointment of the Osmund Jayaratne Committee on Higher Educational Reforms in 1970 was yet another contribution, though its realistic reforms pertaining to the rationalisation of University courses were not implemented.
It addressed the question of the employability of graduates; the appointment of this committee of inquiry into the then existing system of Higher Education, therefore, indicated that Dr. Badi-ud-din- Mahmud had the right vision on Higher Educational Reforms.
Before I conclude, it would be useful to refer to his role within the Sri Lanka Freedom Party of which he was a founder member. He was one of the first General Secretaries of the SLFP, and this appointment was made primarily to give a non-communal character to the party. It is known within the party hierarchy that it was Dr. Badi-ud-din- Mahmud who persuaded the late Mrs. Sirimavo Bandaranaike to enter politics and accept the leadership of the party as well.
This is a major political contribution with which he can carve out a place for himself in the history of politics of Sri Lanka.
In addition, it was he who laid a solid foundation for the education of the Muslim Community, which hitherto remained educationally backward, to emerge as an useful segment of the intellectual community in Sri Lanka, and whose involvement, despite minor differences based on ethnicity, is vitally necessary to take this country along the path of stability, unity, understanding, harmony and development. In my view achievement of this objective, for the purpose of building a united and strong Sri Lanka, is the biggest tribute which could be paid to this illustrious gentlemen of a politician
