An analysis of the role of teachers in the application of competency-based education in senior secondary school mathematics education in Sri Lanka

Although Sri Lanka has achieved high success in school enrolment and literacy rates, the heavy examination orientation has adversely affected the student's total development. The three public examinations, Scholarship Examination, General Certificate of Education (Ordinary Level), and General Certificate of Examination (Advanced Level), receive too much attention from students, teachers, and parents, bringing too much stress on students. The study analysed the teachers' role in applying the Competency-Based Education system at the Senior Secondary Level of mathematics education from three perspectives: Initiate learning activities in a manner that will arouse interest among students, observe students to identify their positive and negative learning abilities, and promote learning by providing feedback on students' performance. The study employed a quantitative approach. A questionnaire was used as the primary data collection instrument. A stratified random sampling method was used to select a sample of 276 mathematics teachers who taught grades 10 and 11 from the Western Province of Sri Lanka. The findings revealed that the teachers were not fully aware of their roles and responsibilities in the CBE teaching-learning and assessment process, which hindered the application of CBE in the mathematics learning process at the senior secondary level. The findings lead to various recommendations, which include the Department of Education developing a mechanism to monitor the teaching-learning process regularly and providing teachers with adequate training where necessary. Further, implementing a competency-based assessment system to uplift the 21st-century skills within students. The aspects discussed would benefit policymakers, administrators, and teachers in enhancing the mathematics teaching-learning process.