Contribution to the Development of Political Concepts of Civic Education Among in Grades 10-11 in Sri Lanka

Abstract

The man began to live a civilized life in the study of human history; he realized the need and importance of living in a way that would not be a trouble to other living things. They were accustomed to shaping their lives because they had some understanding of the rights of others as well as their duties. The main reason for conflict to arise in any society is that human beings do not live lawfully. Humans always live by emphasizing only his rights and do not care about the duties they have to fulfill. Therefore, it is clear that there are some conflicts between individuals as well as between societies. From the school days, citizens need to understand that r to live together in a community; they must live lawfully and democratically. Accordingly, the school curriculum in Sri Lanka has taken steps to provide an understanding of political concepts for the students in schools.Special attention is paid to the Civic Education Curriculum for Grades 10 and 11. It is planned to impart the required political conceptual knowledge under ten main topics. Understanding political concepts is a skill that every citizen of society should have. Thus, updating the understanding of changing political concepts can be cited as a responsibility of education. In view of all the above, it is clear that it is important for school education to give students an understanding of political concepts. It was also noted that there are problems with the current political understanding of Sri Lanka. Therefore, it can be pointed out that it is timely and essential to find out whether the students of Grades 10 and 11 in Sri Lanka have an adequate understanding of political concepts through the subject of Civic Education. The main purpose of this research is to understand the existing knowledge gap about political concepts in the system and to produce new knowledge needed to fill it. There were two specific objectives. First one is Identify key political concepts in Civic Education and second one discovers students’ level of understanding on political concepts through Civic Education. This is a quantitative research that adopts questionnaires as a research instrument.18 teachers who teach Civic Education in grades 10, 11 were selected under the purposive Sample technique. Also, 110 students studying in Grade 11 were selected for the student sample subject to random sampling. Data collection and an autonomous questionnaire and interview schedule for students were used. Necessary data was obtained from the teachers through interviews. The data obtained from the questionnaire was analyzed in percentage terms and the data obtained from the interviews were presented in narration format under the qualitative results. Data analysis shows that civic education does not provide an adequate level of understanding of political concepts, as well as students have similar problems. Although it is often necessary to appoint teachers with expertise in the subject to teach Civic Education, it is not the case in many schools, and teachers point out that there are problems with the selection of students as this subject is included in the curriculum. These were the conclusion of the study. The basic political concepts that a citizen should know are included in the syllabus of Civic Education. Arrangements have been made to teach relevant political concepts to the students in the school. It is advisable to make Civic Education a core subject so that every student can study it. In order to teach Civic Education, it is necessary to provide special training to the teachers in that subject. Civic Education can be used as a primary source to help citizens in society protect their rights and to fulfill their duties and responsibilities on behalf of others.