earticle

영어

The article is composed of four parts: 1) introduction, 2) historical background as a multi identity society 3) situation analysis of conflicts related to language policy and education policy, 4) alternatives to integration and cultural diversity of the peo-ple, 5) conclusion. It is based on my working experiences and interviews with the people of Sri Lanka as a regional educational program coordinator of the Asia-Pacific Centre of Education for International Understanding under the auspices of UNESCO during my visit in Sri Lanka in 2004, and makes references to recent documentation and articles as well.Sri Lanka is not in the way of integration even after gaining independence. Independence brings much clearer segregation and conflicts among the Sinhala and Tamils. Before independence, these two main racial groups fought against England, their common enemy. At that time they used English as their common official lan-guage, while they used their own mother-tongue at home or in the community. But after independence, the Sinhalese as the ruling class kept their identity strongly by using only Sinhalese, while the Tamils used only Tamil. The people had no obligation to learn English as an official language as they had in the British colonial time. Since Sinhalese was adopted as the national language, the Tamils lost many of their privileges, particularly in entering universities and getting jobs, especially due to lack of language skills in Sinhales. The conflicts between the Tamil and Sinhalese erupted into violence, and terror. During these violent conflicts, many peo-ple were killed, and lost their family members, and left their own village and town. A new language program after long and severe conflicts, makes one racial group communicate with the other group. They learn not only their own language, but also the language of the other racial group. They are now capable of communicating with other groups, and they can at least have an opportunity to change their mis-understanding or mis-perception of the other cultural, racial group. One of these initiatives, GTZ(German Technical Co-operation)’s Basic Education Sector Program promoted inter-cultural understanding between the Sinhala and Tamil through a language education program, and furthermore strengthened integration among peo-ple from different cultural, racial, religious and language backgrounds. To build peace and integration among the people in Sri Lanka, instead of conflicts and terror, language policy and educational programs play a crucial role in getting different racial groups to respect multi cultural identity, including rights and status of minorities. Communication continuously needed to achieve peace in this diverse society.

한국어

스리랑카는 독립 이후 다수 종족이 정권을 획득하면서 이러한 다양성을 존중하지 않고, 특정 종족이 독점하는 언어 및 교육정책을 추진해왔다. 본 논문에서는 다문화적 사회 정체성을 요구하는 그룹들의 대립과 갈등관계를 검토하고, 스리랑카를 사례로 갈등과 대립을 해소하기 위해서는 무엇보다도 다문화적‧다인종적‧다종교적 정체성을 존중하는 것이 필요하다는 것을 제시한다. 스리랑카의 이종족간, 그리고 지역간 대립을 고찰해보면, 다수결 원리가 지배하는 민주주의 사회에서 사회적 다수의 독점이 낳을 수 있는 폐해를 볼 수 있으며, 나아가 다문화 사회의 안정과 평화를 유지하는데 있어서 사회적‧문화적‧인종적‧언어적 다양성을 존중하고 인정하는 교육정책과 언어정책이 중요하다는 함의를 제시한다.