Rethinking Religious Education

A teenager’s worldview...

- Serika Siriwardene

In writing this article, I’ve been cautioned against using the word “secular” too much, and while that seemed shocking to me, it seems to be reflective of Sri Lanka’s - and even the world’s - general ineptitude at word association, and how in increasingly dynamic and constantly changing societies, this has caused more problems than one would think. Secularism is, simply, the separation of ‘church’ and state, and yet, if one were to mention it in casual conversation or say, in an article in a national newspaper, there would be at least some outcry to the effect of “that’s stripping away our culture!” or “Sri Lanka is a religious country!” or “these Western ideas have no place in Asia!” - outcry which only reflects peoples’ limited understanding of secularism.

Today, as I focus on the non-secularism in our country, it is clear to me that a fundamental cause of it is our education system which polarises rather than unites. A relic of the missionary era, our system imposes religious education upon children while failing utterly to foster inter-religious understanding. It serves only to widen communal differences, and more cogently, also violates the right of freedom of religion granted to citizens by the Constitution.

I therefore posit that:

1. It is problematic that education is segregated both within and between schools.

2. Religion does not fit into a national education system’s mandates.