The Secretary to the Ministry of Education, Prof. Kapila Perera says that attention has been focused on implementing a program to provide education to any child who wishes to study in English medium from the primary section to the GCE Advanced Level.
Prof. Kapila Perera said after obtaining the recommendations of the Committee of Experts currently appointed by the Ministry of Education regarding the provision of English medium education in schools island wide, steps will be taken to start such schools at the provincial level as a pilot project. Based on the success of the pilot schools, the facility will be provided to all students island wide.
The Secretary further said that steps have been taken to develop the Gangodawila Wijayarama Vidyalaya, Nugegoda, especially for the implementation of this program as a pilot project in the first place.
He further said that the Sri Lankan economy has also been affected by the Covid 19 epidemic which is currently spreading rapidly around the world.
Accordingly, there is a constant demand from parents who send their children to international schools that they be given the opportunity to be admitted to the public school system as it is difficult to pay their monthly school fees due to economic problems.
“The problem here is that these children study in English medium from primary to advanced level. But there are very few English medium schools in government school system. Even those teach only ‘core’ subjects. Therefore, we believe that a permanent solution should be found to this,” the Secretary said.
“Accordingly, a committee of education experts has been appointed to make recommendations regarding the solution to this problem. Accordingly, attention has been paid to the possibility of starting such a school as a pilot project in Colombo as well as in every province. If the project is successful, it will be possible to provide such English medium schools to all parts of the island.”
The project to provide English medium education will be implemented in line with the 1,000 National Schools Program and the Trilingual Schools Program.
Furthermore, the Education Ministry plans to increase the number of students studying for Advanced Level in Science from 35% to 60% and as per the present Government Education Policy, the number of A / L students in the arts stream is expected to be reduced to 25%.
Also the project to merge Wijayarama School, Nugegoda with Devi Balika Vidyalaya will be cancelled, and instead Wijayarama Vidyalaya, Nugegoda will be converted into an English medium school, the Education Secretary disclosed.
Courtesy: Colombo Page
