The whole national problem in Sri Lanka and the drop in the standards of university education on the island is the tragic result of monolingualism practised there after the switchover to the swabhasha medium of education, according to Professor K.N.O. Dharmadasa, Editor-in-Chief, Sinhala Encyclopaedia. The swabhasha policy entailed that Sinhalese students should study in the Sinhala medium and that Tamil students should study in the Tamil medium.Dr. Dharmadasa, former Professor of Sinhala, University of Peradeniya and a Fulbright Fellow, said that after the switch to swabhasha (in the 1950s and 60s), those who managed the educational policy of the island neglected education in the English medium. Generations of people arose in the 1970s, 80s, and early 90s who were monolingual. This is the worse part. We could have been at least bilingual, in Sinhala and Tamil. Thai also never happened, he said. Besides, the study of English was neglected. This was very shortsighted on the part of those who managed the educational policy at that time.

News of Srilanka Education