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| Sunday, 21 August 2005 |
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Features |  |
| News Business Features Editorial
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Improving
human capital - a crying need
by Gamini Warushamana Mathematics is not merely solving sums and equations as it is logical thinking. Our maths education system is wrong in this sense, says mathematician and founder president of the Sri Lanka Olympiad Society Dr.Upali Mampitiya. Dr. Mampitiya is a senior lecturer of the Department of Mathamatics at the University of Kelaniya. Dr Mampitiya said, as much as precious gems are found among ordinary stones, there are exceptionally brilliant children with high brainpower who should be identified and provided special opportunities, to assist them as they are the most valuable human capital in the country. Most countries have special programs to identify these children, but Sri Lanka does not have even a laid down criteria or method to identify them. In India they identify these exceptional children and train them for two years to participate in the International Olympiad (IO). We also send six children for this contest annually but give them only two months training to face a completely strange international environment where they may not be able to show their full potential. Another unfortunate situation is that nobody cares about these brilliant children after they gain international reputation. Even under these circumstances two Sri Lankan children have won bronze medals at the IO. However, the government, media, Education Ministry or any authority have not recognised them and provided opportunities for them to use their intelligence. There is no ceremonial welcome for them at the airport, Dr. Mampitiya said. Under the present mathematics education system only 40 per cent of the students pass the Advanced Level examination. This may be the maximum number who can pass the mathematics subject within two years. General mathematics for day-to-day usage or maths for all should not be limited to the GCE (ordinary level) examination. In USA maths for all is taught even at university level. Dr Mampitiya said Mathematics is equally important as a language. It develops aptitude. Logical thinking and algorithm is the basis of computer education. Surprisingly we found bright students for computer studies in the Arts Faculty of the university whose O/L mathematics results were low. This indicates the deficiencies in the O/L mathematics question paper. We also have to consider whether similar opportunities are available for mathematics education. The Advanced Level mathematics syllabus targets the engineering syllabus of the university, but only 10 per cent of the students enter the engineering faculty. It is a question whether we should target the 10 per cent or the remaining 90 per cent. There are many important topics that should be included in the A/L mathematics syllabus. Sri Lanka's syllabuses are internationally accepted. Under the British system there are more options and it is flexible. Here the options are limited and we force children to follow the syllabus available. We have to consider statistics, mathematics for accounting, technical education and management. Our mathematics education should provide the skills to all other educational streams but today it is not so. Another problem is the quality of our mathematics teachers. They have no exposure to new knowledge and teaching practices. We are still using outdated methods such as teaching by giving examples. Teaching methods have changed and today there are new methods where students can easily grasp the subject better. But our teachers are not trained for this purpose although they are intelligent and could teach anything. A centre should be set up for mathematics teachers to overcome these drawbacks. The lack of mathematics educationists is the main reason for the many issues in mathematics education in the country. There is a wide gap between universities and our maths teachers. This gap has to be bridged and we should train more mathematics graduates for mathematics education, Dr. Mampitiya said. |
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