1.2 Portuguese and Dutch Periods (1500 - 1796 AD)
Portuguese Period - (1505 - 1658 AD)
When the Portuguese invaded Sri Lanka in 1505, the country was ruled by the Kings of Kotte, Kandy, and Jaffna. Even though they first appeared as merchants later they ruled the maritime provinces of Sri Lanka for about 160 years. The Portuguese introduced an education system in the provinces under them and started many schools. There is evidence to show that Jaffna had 25 schools and in Kotte there were 56 schools.
The main aims of their education system were:
- Conversion of local population to Catholic Religion.
- To win the confidence and allegiance of the Sinhalese and Tamils through the religion.
- Teaching of Reading, Writing and Arithmetic to those converted to Catholic religion.
The curriculum consisted of Catholic Religion, reading, writing, arithmetic and languages like Portuguese, Arabic, Greek and Latin. The teachers were mostly Catholic Priests.
The Dutch Period: ( 1658 - 1796 AD)
The Dutch conquered maritime provinces of Sri Lanka and the Provinces that were under the Portuguese and continued the education of children to gain confidence of the people.
The aims of their education System were:
1. Conversion of local people to Christianity and to suppress the spread of Catholic Religion.
2. To teach Reading and Writing to those newly converted people. To train a set of local
3. people to assist them for work in the government offices.
In addition to the schools already in existence they set up a 'Normal School' to train teachers in Colombo. The medium of instruction was mainly Sinhala and Tamil. The teachers consisted of Christian Priests, teachers of Catechism and even soldiers.
Under the Portuguese System of schools, girls were given an elementary education in parish schools but were denied entry into the secondary schools and seminaries, which provided higher education.
Under the Dutch however, with their system of free compulsory education, large numbers of girls began to attend school, but parents showed great reluctance to keep their daughters in schools after their eighth year.
During the Portuguese and Dutch occupation, the state of affairs was not favorable for Buddhist Education to thrive. The 16th, 17th, and 18th centuries saw the decay of the ancient system of learning under the combined onslaught of foreign domination, missionary activity and internal dissention.
It was Velivita Saranankara, the last Sangha Raja of Sri Lanka (1698-1778) who devoted himself to a variety of educational enterprises attempting to educate Buddhist monks and encourage them for spreading the doctrine. Monks were trained to deliver intelligent discourses to educate the layman. He collected a large amount of writing material and made his pupils transcribe under his own supervision all the books necessary for their education.