Sri Lanka Education Forum

The Child Rights Convention (CRC) explains how governments and international organizations have to work to ensure children are protected in their rights. Sri Lanka signed the CRC in 1990 and ratified it in 1991.The guiding principles of the Convention include non-discrimination; adherence to the best interests of the child; the right to life, survival and development; and the right to participate. They represent the underlying requirements for any and all rights to be realized. Article 23: The State recognizes “… the right of the disabled child to special care” and the right to “enjoy a full and decent life in ...

ඉසුරු වැඩසටහන මතුගමටත්.... ජේ්‍ය්ෂ්ඨ පාසල් වලින් ප‍්‍රාථමික පාසල් වෙන් කළ නොහැකිද? එහෙම නැහැ. සුපිරි පාසල් වලින් බලය විකේන්ද්‍රණය කළ හැකියි. ජනප‍්‍රිය පාසල් වලින් ප‍්‍රාථමිකය වෙන්කර අඩු ආදායම් ලාභී අධ්‍යාපන කොට්ඨාශ වල ඇති 150 ක් සංවර්ධනය කිරීමට සත්භාවයෙන් වැඩ කරන ස්වෙච්ඡුා සේවකයන් පිරිසක් පසුබිමෙන් සිටිනවා. මොවුන්ගේ පරමාර්ථය වනුයේ අසල්වැසි ප‍්‍රාථමික පාසල් පොකුරෙන් දක්ෂ දරුවන්ගෙන් සමන්විත අඩු තරමේ එක් අග‍්‍රගන්‍යයේ පාසලක් හෝ සෑම පළාතකටම බිහි කිරීමයි. මෙම වැඩසටහන ඉසුරු නමින් හඳුන්වනු ලබන අතර පියසේන මහතා එහි අධ්‍යක්ෂකර වරයා ලෙස කටයුතු කරයි. මතුගම පළාතේ ක‍්‍රියාත්මක වන ඉසුරු වැඩසටහන සම්බන්ධයෙන් එම පළාතේ කළාප අධ්‍යක්ෂිකා පද්මිනි විජේසිංහ මහත්මිය සමග කථා කිරීමට මට අවස්ථාවක් ලැබුණා. එක් කොට්ඨාශයකට අග‍්‍රගන්‍යයේ පාසල බැගින් ...

Through out the history of Sri Lanka, the decisions related to language education made by responsible decision makers, have pushed the country towards disputes, unrest, distrust among each other, lack of harmony and inefficiency in the competent world aiming towards a global village.  President Rajapakse’s annoucemnt gives us a ray of hope about a potentiality to change a generational mistake. Malathie Kalpana Ambrose       http://www.dailymirror.lk/DM_BLOG/Sections/frmNewsDetailView.aspx?ARTID=4079   President Mahinda Rajapaksa will officially declare 2009 as the Year of English and Information and Technology (IT) today. Gracing this event in Colomo besides other dignitaries will be Dr. N. R.  Narayana Murthy, the father of ...

According to a news item in the Lankadeepa a parent who refused to pay Rs: 6500 as admission fee for Gampola Zahira  was beaten up in the school premises by some one who  had said " Because of you the school  did not get the money it needed".Apparently, the school development society had decided to charge Rs: 6500 from each new year-1 student. The parent in question had complained to higher authorities who in turn had instructed the school to charge only the facility fee of Rs: 36.How about admissions fees charged by other schools? Does the minister and ministry ...

Separating primary schools from larger schools is an impossiblity? Not so, if you move away from the power orbits  of the super schools. Behind the scenes, a few dedicated officials are trying to separate primary schools from popular schools in a set of 150 low income education divisions.  The goal is develop at least one larger school in each division as a well equipped secondary school that attract children from a cluster of neighboring primary schools.  The program is called Isuru and the director of the program is Mr. Piyasena. I had a chance to talk to Mrs. Padmini Wijesinghe, ...

Malathie Kalpana Ambrose   Statistically we hold a higher state in education among the South Asian countries. Proudly we declare that our literacy rate is above 92%. But do all our children enjoy their right to education? How about the children in refugee camps in North and East? How about the children in remote areas where they have to walk more than 6km to the nearest school? How about the differently abled children who are not accepted either by the society or any school? How about children live in the streets, exposed to all sort of anti social bustles? How about the innocent ...

Malathie Kalpana Ambrose It is great to see that after ages policy makers  are realizing that the existing curricula has not been producing holistic personalities throughout the past. But realizing that fact itself will not be enough, unless the policy proposals bring about a vital change in to curricula development.   The following proposals were taken from the First Draft –National Policy framework on General Education in Sri Lanka prepared by National Committee  for Formulating a New Education Act for General Education, 2008. The proposals are for one of the key policy issues identified by the committee.   Curriculum Development Policy Issue І   Curricula developed for schools ...

I was shocked to read about the arrest of Mr. H.M. Dayananda on charges of bribery as reported in the Lankadeepa newspaper on December 02nd. I first met Mr. Dayanada as a speaker at an education forum meeting at the SLFI. Since then he attended several other meetings organized by the forum bringing other principals also. I had the opportunity to visit the Kotahena Kanishta Vidyalaya on several occasions. One occasion was the opening of the new meeting room that was repaired and fully furbished by a Bank of Ceylon branch in the neighborhood. Then I was invited ot attend ...

(Pass rate = percent of school candidates passing 6 subjects including math and language) GCE O/L pass rates have doubled over the decade spanning 1995 to 2005.Here are some data (data_ed_ol_examresults1 What do you make of the data? 1. From 1995 to 2000 the pass rates increased dramatically 20% to 40%. Why? Is it because: a. Education reforms have had an effect b. Benefits of public education became increasingly more available to all c. More and more students are getting help from tuition classes d. The mathematics papers have got easier over time (e.g. geometry has become and optional topic (The rate in 1999 is an ...

මෙම ව්යාපාරයේ ඇරඹුම සනිටුහන් වන්නේ එක් පියෙක් තම දරුවා වෙනුවෙන් නැගූ හඬ ලාංකේය සිසු පරපුර වෙනුවෙන්ම ව්යාප්ත කිරීමට සිතූ මොහොතකයි. මෙම ව්යාපාරයේ නිර්මාතෘ උපාලි චන්ද්රසිරිගේ සංකල්පනාවකට අනුවයි. උපාලි සඳහන් කරන ආකාරයට යහපත් අධ්යාපනයක් සඳහා අරගලයට මුල් වී ඇත්තේ සිය දියණියගේ අධ්යාපනය සම්බන්ධයෙන් මතූවූ අර්බුදයන්ය. නගරයේ උසස් යැයි සම්මත ප්රථමික පාසලක ඉගෙනුම ලැබූ ඔහුගේ දියණිය ශිෂ්යත්ව විභාගය සමත් වීමෙන් පසු තවත් ජනප්රිය පාසලකට ඇතුළත් වීමේ වරම ලබා ඇත. එහෙත් ඔහුගේ දියණියට එම ජනප්රිය පාසල තුළ වැඩි කලක් අධ්යාපනය ලැබීමට නොහැකි වී ඇති අතර, එයට හේතු වී ඇත්තේ ඇය කෙරෙන් මතු වූ ආබාධ තත්ත්වයක්ය. මෙම ආබාධ තත්ත්වය හේතුවෙන් තරප්පු පෙළවල් ඔස්සේ ඉහළ මහළවලට ...