Travels for university programmes 36

This deals with an interesting difference in perspectives between Oranee and me though very soon she came round to my view, and pushed it even more strongly with great insistence on error correction.

But then I go on to describe how my honeymoon at USJP ended, which meant that I could not get through the many changes that had been envisaged in early days, including the establishment of an English Department and the development of a Special Degree in English. But happily all those went forward after I had left and was therefore no longer seen as a threat.

The pictures are of Dorakumbura and Prof Wilson’s successor as Dean, neither of whom helped with the reforms we had embarked on. Sadly I could not find a picture of Prof Wilson.

Restrictions develop at USJP

Interestingly, when we first started at the GELT, Oranee was adamantly opposed to my insistence on accuracy, citing an expert called Krashen who claimed that inhibited fluency. But soon enough, having seen how bad thngs were, she became more insistent than I was on good grammar. One problem we found was that teachers had elevated the idea that students should not be demotivated into the dogma that they should not be corrected. But we managed, in most cases, to show them how to correct errors while continuing to provide support and encouragement.

On the Wednesday I had only three classes for the Faculty met that day. It approved our new English syllabuses, but there were then delays about going ahead with these as Gunasinghe’s hostility kicked in. Unfortunately he had the ear of the Vice-Chancellor, and succeeded too in evoking hostility to Wilson. Once I recall Wilson said in my hearing that the Doramumbura was being infantile, and soon afterwards he resigned, to be replaced by a dull man who was not at all interested in taking English forward. Wilson and the rest of the senior academics at USJP paid I fear for the move to stop Dorakumbura being appointed Vice-Chancellor, which led to him relying on less competent members of staff.

It was easy for Gunasinghe to turn Dorakumbura against me, for he could claim that I was neglecting USJP. It mattered little to either of them that I taught more than my colleagues and did much more for the programme and the students, while also immeasurably enhancing the stature of the university through all the other responsibilities the UGC entrusted me with. Those with little understanding of outcomes as opposed to formula could not cope with the way I worked, and in the end I think I achieved much more because of the range of work I undertook, than if I had spent more time within the USJP confines.

On the Thursday I went to the UGC in the morning to sort out teachers for several districts, completing the process the next day. I dropped in at the Council and marked more papers and worked on the external degree syllabus, while next day I prepared a new project for the Asia Foundation, while the weekend was occupied by work at Nirmali’s plus more marking and syllabus development. And on the Sunday evening I had dinner at the Galadari with Robert Scoble who was visiting.