Out of the Ordinary
Out of the Ordinary Sharlene De Chickera interviews Mr. Upali Gunasekera, Principal, Royal College to get a Principal’s perspective on Career Guidance Ministry had to justifiably recognize the hard work of the teachers, in order to motivate them not only through monetary means but duly recognize their services and also reward them.
Sitting tall at the helm of Royal College is Upali Gunasekera, the Principal of Sri Lanka’s Eton since 2003. Mr. Gunasekera speaks of his experience at Royal College with pride, but feels that many areas need improvement for the students to face academic challenges leading to a fruitful career in a modern context. Speaking to EDEX Plus on the eve of the G.C.E. Ordinary Level examination results being released at Royal College, Mr. Gunasekera opined that most O/L students needed more direction and guidance when selecting their respective stream for A/L. “I distinctly remember a Royal College prefect who was told to pursue the mathematics stream, by his parents, in spite of wanting to do his advanced level in the commerce stream. When he failed his A/L in mathematics, he secretly went for tuition classes in commerce stream, and achieved 3 As in the end, revealing the truth to his parents only on the day before the first exam paper!” Mr. Gunasekera cites this example as a typical case where students do not necessarily choose the correct stream in terms of the A/Ls. Mr. Gunasekera recommends that this juncture is a crucial point in the life of a student, and invites career guidance counselors and stakeholders to address the students together with their parents to make the pertinent choice in terms of their A/Ls, and thus help select the correct pathway leading to higher education and job opportunities. He said that 3035% percent of the students who sit for the G.C.E. Ordinary level examination
“The tuition masters and institutes that have mass tuition classes use nice formats and colourful banners and leaflets to entice these students to join the tuition classes, maximizing on their marketing. ''What we need to ascertain is whether this is really necessary". Though he is proud of the fact that Royal College emerged 1st place in terms of the Boys’ Schools for the 2009 A/L results and 2nd place in terms of all island next to Visakha Vidyalaya he says that one cannot be complacent with mere ranking. He urges all stakeholders of Royal College to rally round and ensure maximum participation in academic and sporting activity not only from the point of view of teacher-student participation, but also in terms of the sincere educationists who can uplift the standards and guide the students towards professional success.
Mr. Upali Gunasekera Principal Royal College
have not decided conclusively in terms of their A/L career path, and were in need of proper guidance. As an educationist, he urged all the A/L teachers to contribute more to the student’s learning experience and knowledge than what is being taught. He strongly feels that the subject teachers should give of their best to the students and this hallmark of excellence should be sufficient material for the students to effectively sit any examinations. “I feel that if the teacher and the students become genuine facilitators the teacherstudent learning experience will be rich and sufficient to meet the demands of the public examinations.” What is lacking he feels is a commitment on the part of some teachers to give of their best, as dedicated teachers of a noble profession. He was also quick to point out that the Education
Speaking on the career choices in the job market Mr. Gunasekera says that emphasis should be laid on those emerging career choices where awareness should be created in terms of the latest offers. “The traditional careers are well known to our students, but there is new opportunity in industries such as BPO and Maritime Engineering for example”, he surmises. The following chart give the details of the Subject wise performance of School Candidates in terms of crucial subjects such as Mathematics and Science.
G.C.E. (O/L) Examination – 2009 (New Syllabus) Subject wise performance of School Candidates (Freshers) Results by Grades Subject Sinhala Language & Lit. Tamil Language & Lit. English Mathematics History Science
Number Sat 218,448 53,891 271,826 271,611 271,417 271,641
A
%
B
%
C
18,862 8.63 31,884 14.60 61,622 4,417 8.20 6,963 12.92 14,216 29,634 10.90 12,704 4.67 22,961 27,691 10.20 17,500 6.44 32,503 15,191 5.60 18,723 6.90 48,583 12,774 4.70 14,626 5.38 33,544
%
S
%
28.21 26.38 8.45 11.97 17.90 12.35
58,705 15,955 58,705 15,955 36,950 60,778
26.87 29.61 13.59 22.38 30.95 25.83
A+B+ C+S 171,073 41,551 102,249 138,472 166,495 131,116
%
F
%
78.31 77.10 37.62 50.98 61.34 48.27
47,375 12,340 169,577 133,139 104,922 140,525
21.69 22.90 62.38 49.02 38.66 51.73
Source : Research & Development Branch - Department of Examinations
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