The country’s education system will undergo an educational transformation and essential measures will be taken to produce students who are prepared for the twenty-first century, Education Minister Dr. Susil Premajayantha said.

According to the Education Minister, human resources will be managed for that purpose and education will be reformatted in accordance with worldwide standards in order to produce a sustainable and high-quality education.

He also said that the results of the last GCE A/L examination could be released in the middle of next month while this year’s A/Level exams are scheduled to take place in December.

Minister Premajayantha expressed these views today (10) during a press conference themed ‘Collective Path to a Stable Country’ held at the Presidential Media Center (PMC).

The Minister added that the ‘Suraksha Sisu Rakshanaya’ insurance scheme introduced for school children which was suspended due to the financial crisis will resume in 2024.

Education Minister Dr. Susil Premajayantha further commented;

In developed countries, the Ministry of Education acts as a separate entity from the Central Government and a Provincial Minister is in charge of the Ministry of Education. The educational rights of children in countries like India, Canada and Japan have been safeguarded as a result of this educational pattern. 

The Ministry of Education in Sri Lanka is under the control of the Central Government. All schools in our country, with the exception of 399, are governed by the Provincial Ministries of education. The initiative to establish 1,000 national schools was launched in 2001. When the 13th Constitutional Amendment was initiated, there were 17 national schools in this country. However, as a result of political initiatives or the requests of individual Education Ministers, there was a dramatic rise in the number of national schools. However, one cannot say that it led to high-quality education. There was a period in time when 28 national schools were created overnight. But right now, the education industry needs to undergo a transformative change. Instead of the exam-centred education system, students should be aligned in a student-centred education pattern.

There was a significant setback in education as a result of Covid-19 and the recent economic downturn. Additionally, socio economic issues made it impossible to run the schools effectively due to fuel and gas concerns. Federation of University Teachers’ Associations (FUTA) and Teacher trade unions did not attend to evaluate the answer sheet of the Advanced Level examination. The evaluation of the A-Level exam questions has been completed, and that matter is now resolved. I think the exam results could be released in the middle of next month. The A-Level exams for this year are scheduled to take place in December, according to the Ministry of Education. The Ministry of Education has taken steps to hold all the examinations in the prescribed year.

Also, the program needed to reform the new education is currently being implemented. Plans have been made to start teaching activities through English medium in association with the British Council. For this purpose, 13,800 teachers have been trained so far. The updating of textbooks for English was also started promptly.

The addition of Artificial Intelligence and Information Technology to the curriculum is proposed for two grade levels, Grade 6-9 and Grade 10-13. We are attempting to secure Information Technology assistance for this from companies like Microsoft.

About fifty principal positions are open. While conducting a competitive examination for the recruitment, a trade union went to court and got an injunction. For the recruitment of teacher administration services, there are roughly 22000 openings. Government employees who applied for the position have also gone to court to explain why they are unable to take the competitive exam. The recruitment process has thus far been delayed as a result. Due to 100 people’s human rights being brought up in court, 4.2 million students’ human rights have already been violated. As a result, we think the court will rule on this issue quickly.

We are working to continue the ‘13 plus’ education program presented by the President when he was the Prime Minister. A selection committee has been established to expand the education sector and the necessary proposals are currently being prepared. Accordingly, the necessary program to expand education will be prepared jointly with Non-Governmental Organizations in the future. Arrangements are being made to provide loan facilities to Non-Government Universities as well as to create an environment where they can contribute to the economy of this country.

It is intended to establish a training University in Kotagala to train students who choose to go to a plantation in order to safeguard the educational rights of the children of estate workers. By substantially bolstering the regulating program of private and international schools, we are committed to ensuring children’s right to education. With regard to all of these issues, we are working to bring about a change in education from next year.

(PMD)