I finally finished my CIMA exams and a break of three whole days without books is driving me nuts so I’m back to blogging. So, how you doin?
Care for some wibble-wobble thoughts?
How many of you have come across the burden of answering this question in your childhood – what do you want to be when you grow up? Or the famous quote - “Baba loku unaama kawuru wennada kemathi?” Some of you may even have thought that this must be one of the ways they use to harass us in our early days. Of course, the answers are quite fascinating. It’s always ‘I want to be a doctor’, ‘I want to be an Engineer’ or ‘I want to be a pilot’ with the occasional ‘I want to be daddy’ story coming from a young devil :-). Obviously, these do change, most of the time. As time goes by and as we have some idea of what it is like to be in the REAL world, most of these child fantasies crawl through the back door and grant us permission to do some REAL planning. This is where problem strikes.
The education system of
(Traditionally speaking)
By the time we are doing our O/Ls or A/Ls we have (or at least we should have) a clear idea about where we are heading in our life. When we reach our A/Ls we have to choose among four subject streams due to the sheer unluckiness of nothing else being available. Then it’s two years of rampant tuition, two years of dog-eat-dog battle to swim to the top in the class and at around 5 or 6pm in Nugegoda, hell breaks loose.
Everyone has one aim and knows one truth; rather a socially constructed truth – university is the gateway to freedom, the answer to all the miseries of life. Well, at least this is the mindset of the simple person in this country. They struggle day and night for their children to have a good education and the thought of even one of their offspring getting to a university is something brag about in the neighborhood. Even though it may be commonplace in the city, a university student is still a person who’s looked up with recognition in the villages. So where’s the problem?
14% - That’s the percentage of students who gain the minimum qualification to apply for local universities in the A/Ls (or something thereabout). And not even half of this number actually gets in to the university. And even if you get through it’s another (elastic) four years of strikes and picketing until you finally get your degree, that’s a topic for another day.
So where do all the others go? Being unable to get into the university does not attribute to lack of knowledge for most students; it’s the lack of facilities and accommodation in the Sri Lankan universities.
(Evolution)
The traditional education system is changing. Those who are capable will send their children abroad. A large outbreak of private universities has given the opportunity for those who can bear the cost to pursue higher education. Some even do not commit themselves to A/Ls but straightaway go into professional exams after their O/Ls. Some pursue multiple degrees in several institutes or pursue a professional qualification alongside their higher studies.
Still there’s a huge gap. What is to happen to those who marginally miss the local universities and who doesn’t have the necessary resources to pursue higher education abroad or in a private university here in our own country? Of course there are several other government funded institutes giving professional education in areas such as agriculture, mechanics etc. But are they sufficient? Do they provide the luxury of pursuing the aim of life for the students in our country or are they stuck with the profession they are entrusted with?
There is a whole lot of questions.
As for me; I did my A/Ls, got into the University and started doing the things I like; CIMA is painstaking, but still lovable.
3 Comments:
Woudl you mind answering a question on the CIMA journal?
Do you read it?
If so, how often? every month?
And do you find it useful?
Just wondering if student habits have changed since I studied for the exams.
Do you mean the Financial Management mag? If so, yes I do.
I finished my strategic level exams this time around. I didn't attend to any institutes but did the exams by myself so I had to find any study material i could get my hands on.
Yes, i read it every month and it definitely is useful. Since i don't attend the classes, the mag is one of the main ways i get updated on the changes in the study material as well as the business world.
Hope i have answered your question.
Yes thank you.
Most people of my vintage never bothered with reading the magazine (it used to be called Management Accounting at the time).
I was wondering if students today bothered to read it. To be fair, the quality of the magazine has improved and it seems more readable now than it was then.
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