Jounior Observer | Sunday Observer.lk

The dearth of English medium teachers for Advanced Level classes in National Schools will be completely solved with the appointing of over 1,500 trained English teachers in January next year by the government, Education Minister Bandula Gunawardane said last week.Minister Gunawardane told the Junior Observer that as the initial step of this programe, about 500 teachers were absorbed to Advanced Level classes at all National Schools in the country last week.

The Minister also said he received many complaints from school authorities as well as from parents of Advanced Level students regarding the shortage of English teachers for main subjects, including Science, Mathematics, Commerce, Accounting, Biology, Chemistry and Political Science.

He said no one should complain about the dearth of teachers , since all schools have been provided with adequate teachers to teach subjects in all three mediums - Sinhala, Tamil and English.

Referring to statistics, the Minister said nearly 225,000 teachers are in the service at present for over four million children in the country.

He said in addition, the Ministry has also focused special attention on the development of preschool education in the country.

“We have also submitted a proposal to UNESCO to train foreign preschool teachers at the Sri Lanka National College of Education,” he said.

The Minister said Sri Lanka National Colleges are capable of functioning as international training centres for preschool teachers.“This type of training will also give an opportunity to our preschool teachers to share the views of different teaching methods of preschool education,” he added.

The Royal Commonwealth Society (RCS) at the Commonwealth Club in London, recently announced 2010 winners of the Young Commonwealth Essay Competition, the world’s oldest and largest youth writing competition.

There were nearly 4000 entries from all the Commonwealth countries in this year’s competition and the UK and Sri Lanka have shown outstanding performances winning the highest and most prestigious prizes.

In 2010, for the first time in more than 25 years, the top prize of the senior category was awarded to 18 year old UK based entrant, Lars Gladhaug from St. Edward’s School, Oxford, whilst 12 year old Sri Lankan student, Samm Pecht from Gateway College, Negombo, triumphed in the junior category.

The Senior Runner-up prize was awarded to Jia Ying Lim (age 15) from Singapore and once again the Junior Runner-up prize was won by Sharuka Wickramanayake (age 14) a Sri Lankan student, from The British Council, Sri Lanka. Among the other four Junior Prize winners, Sri Lankan student Thiagarajah Sikhandi has won a Class D award.

It is a big achievement to win an award in the RCS essay competition. This year, a new award system was initiated. An overall winner was chosen in the Senior (Classes A and B) and Junior (Classes C and D) categories by RCS appointed special judging panel. Additionally, eight further Special Awards were given to essays which excelled in particular fields of writing. The Essay Examiners awarded further Gold, Silver and Bronze Awards in each of the four classes. They also awarded Local and Island Awards in different regions. Finally, the examiners awarded eight special awards for the top entrant who answered the question on climate change this year.

Among the 2010 Indian Ocean (Islands) Region 14 entries from the Maldives, Mauritius and Seychelles were considered as winners. Buddhima Hettiarachchi’s essay ‘An adventure in space’ has won a Class C prize among the four winners in Seychelles.

The Royal Commonwealth Society (RCS) has been running international creative competitions for young people for more than one hundred years.

The Commonwealth Essay Competition is the world’s oldest and largest youth writing competition attracting more than 50,000 entries from around the Commonwealth each year.

Samm Pecht was invited to attend a week-long programme of activities in London that culminated with the Commonwealth Gala Awards Ceremony on October 14.

In the same competition, many other students of Gateway College Negombo performed exceptionally well.

They include Tharindu Mendis, Dimithra Perera and Matt Pecht who won Silver Awards and Nathalie Lennon and Dhoyon Kim who won Bronze Awards.


Winners of March 2010: From left to right - Ahanya Loganathan, Hasini Weerasinghe, Rachel Dana Berman, Ishani Divajini Chandrasena, U.S. Ambassador to Sri Lanka - Patricia Butenis, Thirunavuckarasu Thuvarakan, Vishmi Perera , Pramodha Weerasekera, Menushi Rajapakse, Sina Jones - Public Diplomacy Associate.	Winners of April 2010: From left to right - Maimoon Mohamed, W. M. Vindya Nilupulee Rajasekara, M. L. F. Sameera, U.S. Ambassador to Sri Lanka and the Maldives - Patricia Butenis, Charith Rukshan Suriyaaratchie, Faleel Mohammed Akmal, W. Naveen Devinda, Sina Jones - Public Diplomacy Associate.