Disclosing the proposed new educational reforms, the Ministry of Education stated that it is intended to reduce the number of school grades from 13 to 12.
This was disclosed at the time of presenting the progress of the year 2023 and plans for the year 2024 for the budget of the Ministry of Education by (Dr.) Susil Premajayantha, for the Ministers and Members of Parliament.
Accordingly, the educational authorities stated that through the proposed new education reforms, every child will be given the opportunity to finish school in 17 years. Accordingly, pre-school education is classified as 4 years old, primary section 1-5, junior section 6-8 and senior section 9 to 12.
While it has been proposed to give a certain percentage of marks from school-based evaluations and a certain percentage from exams for the grade 5 scholarship exam, the Ministry of Education has also proposed to simplify the grade 5 scholarship exam and eliminate competition, the statement said.
Furthermore, through the proposed new education reforms, the Ministry of Education has proposed to conduct the general level examination in grade 10 and the advanced level examination is scheduled for grade 12. It has also been decided to reduce the number of subjects for O/L’s from 9 to 7.
Officials representing the Ministry of Education stated that among those 7 subjects, it has been proposed to make it mandatory to study three new subjects; Information and Communication Technology (ICT), technical and professional skills and religious and values.
The officials of the Ministry of Education, who pointed out that more than eighty thousand (80,000) students fail in the ordinary level examination in a year, have suggested that no child will fail through the new education reforms and that all children who passed the ordinary level examination should be given the opportunity to study vocational training courses.
For that, A-level subjects have been classified into two categories as academic education and vocational education and a path has been prepared for every child to obtain a degree. The Ministry of Education also pointed out that two new subjects have been added under academic studies by increasing the current subjects from 6 to 8. Furthermore, the officials of the Ministry stated that the children will receive the opportunity to obtain education through 10 subject areas under practical studies and through that, the children will get the opportunity to obtain degrees by going through vocational fields.
The Ministry pointed out that administrative restructuring is also taking place in the education service. The number of existing educational zones will increase from 100 to 122 and the total number of ten thousand one hundred and twenty-six (10,126) schools will be classified as cluster schools of one thousand two hundred and twenty (1220). All the existing national schools will be a flagship school in a cluster of schools as flagship schools at the provincial level.
Officials of the Ministry said that 517.05 billion rupees have been allocated for the Ministry of Education in this year’s budget for the year 2024. Of this, two thousand million rupees have been allocated for providing school textbooks, six million rupees for school uniforms, and two thousand five hundred million rupees for providing school shoes to seven hundred twenty-eight thousand four hundred and eighty (728,480) children. About 1.07 million school children are currently being given lunch and the same number is ready to be given to 1.5 million children in the year 2024, the Ministry of Education officials said.
Sate Minister of Education A. Aravindh Kumar, Minsiters and Members of Parliament, Secretary to the Ministry of Education Mr. Nihal Ranasinghe, Commissioner General of Examinations Mr. Amit Jayasundara, Senior Advisor of the Ministry of Education Prof. Gunapala Nanayakkara and a group of high officials of the Ministry of Education were present at this occasion.
