Examination based education

July 31, 2012, 6:37 pm , the island

I refer to the the article by R. Chandrasoma published in The Island of 28th July 2012.

In that article, Chandrasoma states:

"For more than half a century now, we have selected our doctors, engineers, academics and top administrators on the basis of their ‘performance’ at public examinations – the highest scorers island-wide have been admitted to these privileged positions. Is there any evidence that these top ‘achievers’ identified by examination scores have excelled as professionals and academics? Have we produced any public intellectual of standing through this exam-based selective protocol? Do we have researchers of the first rank? Are our doctors and engineers a driving-force in the creative improvement of the society we share with them? No difficulty will be found in answering these questions."

I myself have answered the questions in the negative. However, in western countries, it appears that during the last few centuries, most of the top achievers have come through the examination based education and protocol, though some very creative people could have been lost in the process, and some others such as Einstein could not be considered as products of that education and protocol. Is it only the examination based education that is responsible for the absence of top researches in Sri Lanka?

Nalin de Silva