Anusha David spotlights the hottest styles and statements in and around Sri Lanka – from political leaders to celebrity CEOs, masters of the game to fashion icons and stars of the silver screen and stage. Here are society’s leaders talking about the determination, vision, smarts, competence and professionalism. Today, she speaks to Goolbai Gunasekara. 

Goolbai Gunasekara needs no introduction. Armed with an impeccable background in education thanks to her two famous educationist parents, Dr. Kewal and Mrs. Clara Motwani and her own educational credentials which included an Honours Degree in History, an Honorary Doctorate in English and a host of prizes and awards at various stages of her life, Gool as she is popularly known has been and is, an inspiration to all those whose lives she has touched. When the idea of building a school was first born in the mind of the illustrious founder of A.I.S., Mr. W.P. Perera, he realized that as a businessman, a planter and an entrepreneur he would need the best expertise he could get in the field of education to build and lead his school. Accordingly he invited Goolbai Gunasekara to be the first Principal of his new school - Asian International School. The professional partnership formed between Mr. Perera and Mrs. Gunasekara was an outstanding success, culminating in A.I.S. becoming one of the most respected international schools in the island. It has been her aim to give her students not only a fine education but to endow them with that most valuable of all possessions – an educated and loving heart. The author of nine books, with another in the pipeline, this outstanding  woman continues to work, teach, write and inspire all who come into contact with her. 

The daughter of an Indian father and an American mother, you have described yourself as proudly Sri Lankan ; what is your prescription to rid our country of ethnic prejudice once and for all? 

Well one thing for sure is language. It’s an unpopular choice, but I definitely feel that English can be a uniting factor - a bond as it were. Also I have always been (again an unpopular choice) against teaching religion in schools as I feel it divides the children even more. Of course this is just my view but I think everyone will feel more Sri Lankan if they study the same language. The mother tongue must be learnt of course, but I do feel the medium of instruction should be one common language and English seems to be the most convenient. India has done this with enormous success. Togetherness should be fostered in schools; we are such a small country and it seems to me that there was far more unity amongst people in my youth than there is now. 

You are an accomplished pianist having gained the Teachers Diplomas from the Royal Academy of Music while still a teenager – why didn’t you pursue music as your career? 

The reason being that my father at that time was of the opinion that Western music was on its way out. He felt that people were becoming increasingly more nationalistic, he felt there was no future in Western music, so there it was ! I never really considered it as a career. My mother was a very accomplished musician and she had a degree in music too, but music was never a career option; education was always the only option open to me. I feel rather sad as I would have loved to have studied music, but I played for my own pleasure until just a year or two ago and I used to play for an hour or so a day. 

You schooled in three countries – India, the US and Sri Lanka. What was special and unique about each experience? 

In the United States I went to this school called the Dalton School in New York which was  an unusual school. My mother was there to study their teaching methods which she introduced to her schools here in Sri Lanka. Altogether it was a fun experience. I was young, the Americans were very friendly and I enjoyed my American experience very much. Then I went to India, to the Convent in Ootacamand; it was towards the end of the war years, coming on to peace; again it was the same system of education that Sri Lanka had – the British system. I was taught by Western nuns there and here at Bishops College too we had a British Principal and several British teachers. However in Sri Lanka I went to over eight schools; Bishops College, Musaeus College then a school in Bandarawela during the war, Hindu Ladies College in Jaffna; I went to so many schools that I’m really surprised I got an education at all as things varied quite a bit. Nothing suffered though except mathematics; I never really got the hang of mathematics. I guess it was too many schools, too many systems. 

What made you pursue the field of education as your career? 

Actually I’m ashamed to say this but what choice did we have when we were young. My mother was the principal of a school, so I automatically gravitated towards education. My mother gave me the chance of teaching at her school (unenthusiastically) and I took it up once I got my degree. She changed her mind about me fortunately! Having said that once I started teaching I loved it. I did try another job at Radio Ceylon but that didn’t last long. Also it was highly politicised, so I stopped. Then when my daughter was born I took another break for a while but I always went back to teaching as I enjoyed it. 

Do you believe private education exacerbates dispossession? 

Well, in private education there is elitism, but even in communist countries there is elitism. Private education after the Advanced Levels I feel is a must. Up to the A/Ls I think everyone is entitled to free education, but after that I feel to give university education free of charge is ridiculous. No country does it. Even America which is so rich, they charge their students. I remember when they were thinking of starting free education my parents were consulted and both felt it was not advisable to give it free after secondary school. Sir Susantha De Fonseka who was a politician at that time, told my mother “Oh Mrs. Motwani we have so much money we don’t know what to do with it”. The planners of our education systems just didn’t think ahead. Now, well you cant take away what was given but who is grateful for what they get? Where in the world do you get a medical education free as students do in Sri Lanka? Are the medical graduates grateful to the government? There should have been a payback system put into place. Our university graduates are ingrates, they really are. 

In 1944, C.W.W. Kannangara said, “How much nobler will that be for this State Council when we shall be able to say that we found education expensive and left it cheap; that we found it in a sealed book and left it in an open letter; that we found it the patrimony of the rich and left it the inheritance of the poor." Looking at education today, what exactly have the poor inherited? 

Well what has happened now is quantity over quality. When C. W. W Kannangara said those words, the population of Sri Lanka would have been around eight million, not even that maybe. When my mother came to Sri Lanka it was barely three million, so it was easy to make statements like that at the time, but now, the quality of education has dropped so much  that I doubt if C.W.W  could make the same statement. It's true that education is open to everyone, and that it is the right of every citizen to expect it but then Sri Lankans were always educated. We were 90% literate; in Sinhala of course, but I don’t know whether I would say that the quality of education is the same as when we were young; There is so much more to study after all. 

When you were first approached by Mr W.P Perera to head his school, what was your initial reaction? 

Surprise, pleasure and I felt flattered of course. Here I would like to give a lot of credit to Mrs. Elizabeth Moir and her husband Mr. tenduf-la. I taught at the CIS as a parttime teacher for a short time and I loved it. I knew the set up. I told Mr. Perera I would think about it. I contacted Mrs. Moir and her husband and told them I had received this offer and they were both very encouraging. They said they would help me and they did and I will always be grateful to her for that. So I accepted Mr. Perera’s offer and we started planning things out; the projected finances and the costs were enormous. We both were in agreement that we wanted a classy school, a good school. Not necessarily just  an expensive school but a good one. He was a complete visionary. He was the sole investor and the size of Asian today is entirely due to him. It was wonderful to work with him. He trusted me and let me do whatever I wanted. It was great! We just completed 25 years and have started on our 26th. I must say at this point that without the support of my husband I could not have succeeded. He has supported me every step of the way, even driving me to school at six in the morning when the driver didn’t turn up! 

As an educationist, you have said that your aim is that your students should have an educated and loving heart; something neither both local and international educational institutes, nor the government has succeeded in bringing about. How can we succeed in this area? 

This is something that cannot be taught but I think most Principals try through community service clubs, relevant talks by well known people, strict measures against bullying and unkindness. I find that many children  do have loving hearts. Just to give you a few examples, we have a blind student who went on to get all A's at the A/L exam. We have had students in wheelchairs and everyone rallies round them and supports them. However speaking over all, they do say bullying is on the rise. I can only try at Asian, but in government schools where they have thousands of students, how can they teach children to have loving hearts? You have to have comparatively small classes, small numbers, concerned teachers, a caring head, and if the children are lucky, good parents. 

Do you think academics and reformers will be able to successfully lobby the incumbent government to increase the budget allocation for education? (6% of GDP5). 

Well I certainly hope they will. We need to computerize our schools, and there is so much more that needs to be done in terms of facilities for both students as well as teachers. 

In your opinion, what are the most urgent educational reforms required in Sri Lanka? 

Well we are reforming every year, but it seems to be done piecemeal. We do not have just one or two expert educationists to study Sri Lanka’s situation and come up with a comprehensively acceptable system. Education must be taken away from politics and politicians. In my opinion a politician need never visit a school except to give away prizes. Pundits in the Education Dept. suddenly say international schools have to teach Sinhala, Tamil, History and Religion, but except for Religion, we were teaching these subjects anyway. Why make all this so arbitrary? What I would like to see is subjects like World History being made compulsory. Our children know nothing of the world! History is my favourite subject so I’m always hoping for the best. Also the Education Department is too elephantine, it’s too big. Too many controls. For instance I don't think that the Principal of a government school can sack a teacher; it has to be referred to Colombo. How do you benefit education if you can't ask a really bad teacher to go? These days a teacher takes you to labour court and very often the decision is in favour of the teacher. Once you’re a teacher you’re there forever. I would like to see the firing of unsuitable and incompetent teachers taking place when necessary without too much red tape. Another problem in education today is that teachers don’t get enough training. There are so many areas which need change but I don’t know if we have the resources, the will or the manpower to do it. 

According to the Bribery and Corruption Commission, the education sector is one of the most corrupt in the country. How do we address this issue? 

Higher salaries of course. Also Principals of outstation schools are not really Principal material. In most cases they are senior teachers. They have Grades for teachers and Principals too I’m told. For instance the Principal of Visakha has to be a Grade A Principal. But do Principals ever receive any specialized training? Success is very dependant on the personality of the Principal concerned isn’t it? Furthermore the Principals of most government schools are not paid adequately so perhaps they try to make money on the side by selling places in the school. Corruption filters from the top to the bottom. However in the field of education, they just don’t pay enough. I think it’s the worst paid profession in the world and when you think that they are responsible for shaping the future leaders of the country! If they start charging even a small amount from students they could start paying the teachers a better wage. We have to have a more liberal vision as far as education is concerned. 

There is a shocking dearth of qualified and competent teachers – what is your solution to this problem? 

Again it boils down to salaries. Take a child who has gone to an international school and then goes overseas for higher studies; He has spent a significant amount on his education, so wants a high return. Unless of course teaching is taken up for the sheer love of it, how do you lure good teachers into the system except by paying them well. 

How important is wearing a school uniform to a child? 

It's important, especially here. It’s cheap for one thing, it instills a sense of oneness, unity, discipline. If they didn’t wear a uniform to school, children would look a sloppy lot. Another thing I do object to is that government schools insist on mothers wearing a sari to school. They wont let them enter unless they are wearing a sari. I think it’s a complete infringement of personal rights. Other than shorts I don’t see why they can't wear what they like! 

EQ and IQ – as an Educationist which would you say is the more important? 

I write a lot about EQ, but there’s also a new one – SQ , Spiritual Quotient. In fact it is gaining a lot of popularity in places like America strangely enough. I think both are important, but if I had to choose, as an educationist I would opt for IQ. I know it's an unpopular choice, but I think its so vital. Once you discipline your mind, your EQ often does follow suit. Also EQ is not dependent on education but on several other factors like family values, etc, so for me it’s IQ! 

What advice did you give your daughter and granddaughter when they were growing up? 

Goodness, so much. What I gave them probably went in one ear and out through the other! I really can't remember now, but keeping one’s self respect, not fooling around with boys (with anyone really), studying, were top priorities. Getting a sound education was very important. Khulsum, my daughter, was a very good child and rarely if ever did anything wrong. My grandchildren however were like most  children – angelic and quite devilish! 

Should religious studies be taken out of a school’s syllabus, along with daily religious devotions in the morning ? Do you think that the inclusion of religious studies in the school’s curriculum brings about ethnic prejudice? 

I think it does. Unless it’s a religious school, I really think it is the parents’ role to instill religion and cultural values in their children. Why should it be foisted on the schools? You have the Dhamma Schools, the Sunday Schools, and apart from them I think  it is the duty of the parents which they conveniently pass on to the school. I strongly feel that religion is the business of the parents and the home, not the school. What I did start teaching was Value Education. We started teaching the Krishnamurthy syllabuses of Value Education for which my daughter Khulsum was responsible. The whole curriculum  was immensely popular. 

The total breakdown of law and order, discipline, principles, morals, etc that we witnessed in this country during the previous government’s reign, how much of the blame could be laid at the feet of educational establishments? 

I thinks it's rather unfair to blame it on the educational institutions as they take their cue from the politicians and the leaders of the country and if there is no law and order, well it filters down. 

Any books in the pipeline? 

Yes, in fact as you know I write for the LMD on education and I want to compile all the articles I’ve done into a book. Of course I have to get my nephew’s permission, which I’m sure he will give me. I’m wondering what to call it though, I want a catchy title. 

Ever since I can remember I have always envied the fact that you never have a hair out of place, your sari be it cotton or silk is perfectly draped and never crushed or creased – with your schedule, how do you manage it? 

I really don’t know, I think it's just luck. In the mornings I do my hair and my makeup and then I forget about it, but I do it carefully. I am also a very neat person and I think that helps. I can pick out anything from my cupboard in the dark! When you are that disciplined I think it carries over to your clothes and the way you look. 

How would you like to be remembered? 

I would like to be remembered with  respect. With love too would be nice. I would like my pupils to remember me with mostly respect  however. Also a certain amount of admiration – who wouldn’t like that? Also as a good person, an understanding person, and a good friend. 

Interviewed by Anusha David