Sri Lanka Education Forum

The Education Review Office in New Zealand says one in five schools are doing a poor job teaching sex education and a third don't tell parents what their children are learning about the subject. A report has looked at the effectiveness of sexuality education, which is compulsory in state schools. The report was commissioned by the Ministries of Women's Affairs, Health and Education as part of a plan to reduce the number of young people with sexually transmitted infections as well as the high level of teenage pregnancy. The Education Review Office says although some schools teach the subject well, most sex education ...

It is very surprising how different political parties react to the issue of Grade one admissions.  JHU, the so called 'saviours' of the Sinhalese Buddhists have so far taken absolutely no interest in supporting the old boys/girls from Buddhist schools like Ananda/Nalanda/Vishaka. Their silence is deafening, given the fact that if the current circular is to be used the ethnic ratios of the student populations of these schools would change drastically in favour of non-Sinhalese Buddhists.  JVP, a political party that normally ultra sensitive to all issues related to education, too is keeping mum. Nobody knows which party they support.  UNP, on the other hand is ...

Last week TNL ran a good lengthy discussion on Grade 1 admissions with Premjayantha, the education minister, from SLFP, Maddumabandara from UNP, Bimla Dissanyake from JVP and  the priest who looks like ET representing the JHU. The priest kept  to his one-track argument that thius whole thing is a conspiracy against Buddhists and Premjayantha and Maddumabandara tossed political footballs about who did what when. Bimal Dissanyake was the only one who seemed to talk sense. Dissanyake started by saying anything we do at this point should give priority to the humanitarian issue of parents caught in the crossfire. From the chief justice ...

Secretary to the Ministry of Education stated yesterday that the circular to Grade 1 admissions needs further amendments - to be presented before the Supreme Court on next Monday. If anyone has lost count, this is the FOURTH successive time he will do so. Perhaps he will carry out the same exercise in numerous times in future. The modifications he intends to include are by no means minor. In fact, he will be moving from one extreme to the other, as he had done in the previous instances. Education Secretary does not give any guarantee that this is the last ...

Condemning the latest cabinet-approved circular on admission of children to grade one, representatives of past pupils’ associations of over 30 schools countrywide expressed their displeasure over the matter while several filed fundamental rights petitions at the Supreme ...

(This news item from Daily Mirror today looks as it has little to do with education policy. However, it is a good illustration of the difficulties children in some parts of the country had to face in pursuing their studies. Even in this twenty first century we have students who daily walk 5-10 km to reach schools, sometimes risking their own lives as this unfortunate girl had to. Please note this happens in a country that boasts having a school for every 6 square km) The ...

Only a 8 per cent of students pursue science subjects. This had caused a wide disparity between educational needs and results, said Enterprise Development and Investment Promotion Minister Dr. Sarath Amunugama.He was speaking at the convocation of the Indian Chartered Financial Analysis Institute’s (ICFAI University) Sri Lanka Branch at the BMICH recently. Presently the education system had suffered a setback primarily because vast majority of students have been drawn towards the Arts field, he said. Education is a special topic of discussion today. Everyone is paying attention and looking eagerly as to how ...

Marking of GCE Advanced Level answer scripts was crippled yesterday when teachers boycotted the work under apparent pressure from five teacher trade unions. According to trade unionists, paper marking at 16 centres out of the total 27 had ground to a halt. Ceylon Teachers’ Services Union (CTSU) President Dhammika Alahapperuma told the Daily Mirror the combined trade union action was a great success, and vowed to continue with the action until the government sorted out the salary anomalies of teachers. Among the marking centres that did not function yesterday were those located at the Central College, Anuradhapura, St. Joseph’s Balika Vidyalaya, Kegalle, Sujatha ...

The Old Boys' Association (OBA) of the Ananda College filed a Fundamental Rights application in the Supreme Court seeking to quash the new Year One admission circular issued by Ministry of Education.The petitioner, the Secretary of the Ananda College OBA, Jayasiri Ittepana also sought interim relief to suspend the new circular until the final determination of his rights plea. The petitioner also sought to initiate Contempt of Court proceedings against respondent Secretary to the Ministry of Education on the basis that he had failed to follow the guidelines issued by the Supreme Court. The petitioner stated that the Supreme Court had in ...

We present this sad story from today's Lankadeepa about a grade five student who had been prevented from writing the Grade five scholarship examination because her name does not appear in the list.  Ajith Premalal, the Principal and the only teacher of Veragoda junior school, where she study has said he did not apply on behalf of this single eligible girl from his 14 student school, because he had not received the application forms from the Department of examinations.  Over to you, Mr. Education Minister!