The schools takeover and the implementation of the Official Language Act
CABINET OF HON. SIRIMAVO DIAS BANDARANAIKE
(Excerpted from The Memoirs of a Cabinet Secretary by BP Peiris)
The Government now turned its attention to the schools. The reader’s attention is here drawn to two statements, the first, by S.W.R.D.’s Government that, in view of the need to achieve a more unified system of education, the Government had decided to take over such privately-managed schools as the Department of Education might determine in consultation with, and with the consent of, the management concerned, and, secondly, Sirimavo’s statement, repeated ad nauseam in her public speeches, that she was following the policies of her late husband.
The Government view was that schools were overcrowded and there were not enough schools for the children of school-going age. There are still, in 1967, not enough schools. The standard of teaching was deteriorating, as was the standard of English, which everyone accepted and considered a pity. Far-reaching decisions regarding the nationalization of assisted schools, that is, denominational schools in receipt of a grant from Government, were taken.
The general view of the public was that this was another blow aimed mainly at the Roman Catholic schools although leading Buddhist and Muslim schools were also taken over. No compensation was to be paid by reason of the take-over of any assisted school, and where certain school facilities were also used for church, temple or other religious purposes, any difficult questions which arose were to be referred to a board of arbitration to be constituted for the purpose.
A teacher in a school taken over who did not wish to serve under the Government, was to be permitted to retire with compensation for loss of career. The privilege so far granted to private school teachers to contribute to the School Teachers’ Pension Fund was withdrawn and these teachers were declared eligible to contribute to the National Provident Fund.
Assisted school teachers’ who had the right to participate in politics, were told that if they were in a school taken over by the Government they would have no more political rights than were allowed to Government teachers; that is, they could exercise their vote and listen to political speeches made at a meeting, but they could not contest a seat or take an active part in any election.
School-hostels run as part of a school were taken over and handed to be run by a Board of Governors, by parent-teacher associations or by associations of old pupils. Grade I and Grade II Assisted schools which decided to become private schools were given a concession, namely, that where over 75 per centum of the parents or guardians and teachers at any school agreed at a referendum by secret ballot to the school levying fees, such school should be permitted to do so, subject to the proviso that no child should be made to leave the school for inability to pay the fees.
There could be an annual referendum to decide whether the school, if private, should become a Government school. New fee-levying schools for children of the compulsory school-going age were prohibited, and in the case of existing private schools, new admissions of children were limited to those of the denomination of management. Private schools were compelled to follow the national policy in matters of education.
Admission to fee-levying nursery schools was controlled and limited to children of parents of the same denomination as the nursery school management. Ceilings were laid down to the rates of fees to be charged. Specially aided schools, such as schools for the deaf and blind, dancing schools and night schools were allowed to continue as before.
A Bill for the take over was then approved by the Cabinet. A total of 807 schools established by Rural Development Societies and other public welfare organizations were taken over by the State.
The establishment of a National Petroleum Corporation was considered. The services already nationalized were not running at all well and the Queen’s Speech contained the sentence ‘Steps will be taken to ensure that the nationalized services are run more efficiently.’
The Petroleum Corporation Bill had some most unusual and objectionable clauses. It vested vast powers in the Minister and removed the power of the Supreme Court to issue any of the prerogative writs. It had been drafted, on the instructions of the Minister, by a private lawyer. The Ministry official who was dealing with the matter had had the impertinence to take the draft to the Legal Draftsman, Percy de Silva, and say that the draft had been prepared by expert hands. De Silva had asked the officer why then he had come. He was asked to leave the Chambers and take the draft
When the Bill came to me for circulation, I pointed out to the Prime Minister that there were several peculiar provisions in the Bill and she asked the Legal Draftsman for a full report. When the Bill came on the Agenda, the Prime Minister came to the meeting armed with the Legal Draftsman’s report. The Ministry official and the Draftsman were both present.
The Prime Minister was angry and firm. She probably felt that someone, an interested party, was attempting to get the Bill past her and the Cabinet with the objectionable clauses going unnoticed.
Her first question was “Who drafted this Bill?”, and the official present admitted authorship. “Why was it not sent to the Legal Draftsman?” “Well, Madam,” he said, “the Legal Draftsman’s Department uses such peculiar language that we thought it better to draft the Bill ourselves.” The Draftsman retorted, “Madam, this is what happens when laymen try to put their hands to drafting law which they don’t understand. I have given you a full report on the defects in the Bill.” The Bill was sent to the Legal Draftsman to be redrafted.
The Government was meeting more and more difficulties in the implementation of the Official Language Act. The conditions of service of public officers had suddenly altered and officers, including many senior officers who were not familiar with the official language, were asked to work in Sinhala. In order to hasten the implementation of the Act from January 1, 1961, the Government reached the following decisions:
Accounts were to be kept in English and notices calling for tenders and formal contracts should also be in English. A period of three years was fixed as the limit within which the Ministries and Departments concerned should attain that degree of proficiency to enable them to have their accounts kept and audited in the Sinhala language. Officers in the Accountants’ Service who had already qualified were required to pass a paper in Sinhala within this period of three years. The staffs in the various departments were to be so readjusted as to make the language switch-over from January 1, 1961, practicable.
Every officer (other than an officer engaged in professional, scientific or technical work who was allowed to work in English) was allowed to retire without compensation but on normal pension before December 31, 1961, if he was over 55 years of age. Officers who did not exercise the option to retire and who were over 55 years of age were required to pass certain proficiency tests, and special consideration was to be given to an officer’s knowledge of the Sinhala language when deciding whether he should continue to serve the Government when he reached the optional age of retirement at 55. Officers below 55 years of age who failed to pass the proficiency tests within the prescribed period were to have their increments suspended or stopped.
New entrants to the public service were required to have a minimum knowledge of the English language. The concession was however granted for a period of three years to public servants who did not have a knowledge of Sinhala to make their minutes and reports in English and to be provided with translations in English wherever necessary.
By August 1961, the Cabinet had decided to take further steps to implement the Official Language Act. The Secretary to the Treasury was asked to furnish a complete list of all officers of different categories who had completed the age of 55 years on July 31, 1961, and as the finances were unstable, an approximate estimate of the probable payments as commuted pensions to such officers. The Prime Minister agreed to take necessary action to prevent essential technically qualified citizens from leaving the Island to seek employment elsewhere.
Quite a number of officers had already left: the Burghers to settle down permanently in Australia, Canada and the United Kingdom, others for public service in Ghana, Nigeria and other African territories. The taxation in Ceylon was so high and the foreign salaries so attractive that officers were preparing to leave the country. Exchange control was tightened and no one was allowed to take the entirety of his assets out of the Island.
Senior officers recruited for their proficiency in English found themselves not competent to work in Sinhala, with the result that every document had to be translated for their benefit into English. What previously could have been done in three hours took three days. The Government gave these ‘useless’ fellows who were incapable of implementing, or who were hindering the implementation of, the language policy, the option of retiring from Government service.
The Treasury issued a circular allowing every Officer, whatever his age, who was in service prior to the date on which the Official Language Act came into force, the right to retire at his option from
the public service without compensation but on pension or gratuity of such an amount as would have been awarded to him if he had retired on grounds of ill health. The retirement had to take effect before December 31, 1963. The provision for retirement did not apply to officers engaged in professional, scientific or technical work.
The Treasury asked all Heads of Departments for a list of officers engaged in professional, scientific or technical work. These would include officers recruited for professional, scientific or technical qualifications or officers who, after recruitment, received a professional, scientific or technical training. It was essential that these officers should be engaged in work of a professional, scientific or technical nature.
I replied: “I am the only officer in this department who is engaged in work of a professional, scientific or technical nature. I desire that I, in my personal capacity, should be considered as an officer engaged in professional work in the following circumstances. I am a Barrister-at-law and an Advocate who had practised for nearly five years at the Bar when I was selected for appointment as an Assistant Legal Draftsman, in which capacity I served for 11 years. When I was Assistant Legal Draftsman, the then Prime Minister, Mr D.S. Senanayake, selected me to draft the Constitution Order in Council of 1947. I was then selected by him to take charge of the Cabinet Office because of my professional qualifications. In the circumstances please treat me as an officer recruited for professional qualifications.”
I was nearing 54 years of age and was required to pass the third standard in Sinhala. I know no Sinhala. I knew no Sinhala and I refused to sit the examination.
At the end of 1960, the Prime Minister was out of the Island and C. P. de Silva was Chairman of the Cabinet. Disturbances broke out in Kalutara and Paiyagala and Police Officers were frequently summoned to Cabinet meetings. Early in 1961, there was a hartal in the Northern and Eastern Provinces.
Schools which had been taken over by the Government had been occupied by the children attending those schools and their parents. Applications had been made to court to restrain persons from entering the school premises without the permission of the proprietor who was the Director of Education.
The Chairman of the Cabinet warned the public that legislation would be introduced with the least possible delay whereby all school premises and buildings would be taken over completely and the ownership thereof vested in the Government without compensation. Such legislation might be made applicable not only to schools which were then occupied but also to schools which had opted to go private and belonged to the same proprietor.
This was an indirect reference to schools owned by the Roman Catholic Church. Schools under the management of the Director of Education which had been damaged by the proprietors or their agents would be repaired by the Government and the cost of the repairs would be charged to the proprietors. The people did not appear to be frightened by this threat.
Owing to the urgency of the matter, I as a former Legal Draftsman, was given oral instructions to draft a Bill called the Schools (Vesting of Property) Bill. After official revision by the Legal Draftsman, the Bill passed into law as the Assisted Schools and Training Colleges (Supplementary Provisions) Act, No. 8 of 1961. The Act took wide powers. It applied to every school of which the Director of Education was manager, and vested without compensation the property of such school absolutely in the Crown.
A vesting order was declared to be final and conclusive and was not to be called in question in any court whether by way of writ, order, mandate or otherwise. Resistance or obstruction to taking over a school was made an offence punishable with imprisonment for six months with or without a fine. No suit was to lie against the Minister or the Director for any act done in good faith.
