Grade 5 Scholarship Exam puts immense stress on students Psychiatrist

A former Specialist Psychiatrist at the Kandy National Hospital Dr. W. A. L. Wickremasinghe said that the Grade 5 Scholarship Examination, which was conducted with the aim of identifying the child’s knowledge level based on innate talent and without competition, has now become an examination that works on the child’s mental stress through additional classes and workshops aligned with business objectives.

He said that not only the parents, but also the teachers should understand that most of the children who pass the Grade 5 Scholarship Exam do not qualify for university education and that it is not an exam that is necessary to make the children pass by causing mental stress.

Dr. Wickremasinghe said this while speaking to the media after a programme held on Wednesday (4) in conjunction with World Temperance Day at S.W.R.D. Bandaranaike College in Kundasale.

He also emphasized that by putting unbearable pressure on the children by preparing them for an exam at an early age, it is doing more harm than good to their lives.

By directing children to sports, qualities such as leadership, patience, working as a team, and getting used to winning and losing develop in them, but at present, with the commercialization of sports at the international level and at the school level, it is a problem related to the reputation of the school, the principal and the coach. He also said that the Scholarship Exam is being implemented outside of the expected objectives.

The specialist psychiatrist emphasized further in the face of pressure that victory is mandatory in order to protect the reputation of the school, the principal or the coach, the children play with the aim of winning only and because of this, many matches end in fights, and in the past, instances where past pupils also get involved were commonly seen as well.

He also said that until recently, there was informal pre-school education in this country and since only 70 percent of a child’s brain is fully developed by the age of three or four, pre-school is the best time to introduce things like patience, leadership, equality, sharing and discipline into a child’s personality.

Dr. Wickremasinghe said further that at present, due to the intervention of the Government, pre-school education in Sri Lanka is being built-up in a formal manner and it is a very good situation.

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