Mar 30, Colombo: Minister of Education Dr. Susil Premajayantha says that to fulfill the current role of the teacher in creating a future generation of students who are ready to take on challenges, the use of English, which is essential as an alliance language, will start from today for all children in the first grade.

The Minister emphasized that no professional can continue to depend on previous knowledge and for knowing today what will happen tomorrow through updated knowledge, English is very important as an alliance language in providing education suitable for the future professional sector of this country.

The Minister said it is his hope to provide practical speaking training to the students in the classroom from their first day of school so that they can behave without hesitation and nervousness and about 13,800 primary teachers needed for this have been trained so far.

Apart from a few schools, English medium education did not exist in the country after the year 1962 and in the year 2000, to some extent, the teaching of advanced level subjects started in English medium and now children from more than 550 schools from 6th grade and higher appear in English medium for science as well as commerce and arts subjects, the minister said.

Also, in the international schools of Sri Lanka, foreign as well as local children are educated in English from the beginning and the future employment field is mostly open for them, Education Minister pointed out.

The Minister said that in order to close the gap, English language medium education will be practically expanded in government schools and accordingly, next year, this program will be integrated from grade two and with the compulsory English subject from grade three.

The Minister disclosed this information while joining the inaugural program of starting the use of English language for Grade 1 children held today (30) at Gangodawila Samudradevi Girls’ Primary School.

Further commenting on this, the Minister stated that there is no expectation through this program to neglect the Sinhala language in violation of the constitutional law which states that basic education from grade 1-5 should be provided.

He expressed hope that the parents’ expectations will bear fruit and give children the opportunity to open up to the world ahead adding that a pleasant environment will be created in the classroom for both the teacher and students to engage in practical activities and happily engage in the learning-teaching process.

The minister said the educators should be excited to look for friendly and enjoyable strategies to teach subjects such as mathematics and the environment in the same way through the new STEAM education (STEAM- Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, Mathematics) process that will be introduced in the education sector in Sri Lanka in the future.

The minister also mentioned here that the inaugural program of STEAM education will be held tomorrow at the Royal College of Colombo through inter-provincial coordination through Zoom technology.