Frequent visits by Education Ministry officials:

Prompt action to be taken on shortages in schools

by Ananda KANNANGARA

Education Ministry officials have decided to make frequent visits to schools and look into the needs and shortages of educational equipment in each school.

The program will be carried out with the assistance of zonal educational officials.

Education Minister Bandula Gunawardana told the Sunday Observer that even at present school authorities make frequent visits to schools and have discussions with their zonal educational officials on matters pertaining to their schools.

He said he receives information from some schools, especially in rural areas that they still face shortages of equipment in their science and computer laboratories.

"It is our duty to look after the education of the 4.3 million schoolchildren in the country. Therefore, I think all schools, whether they are in urban, rural or remote areas should be provided with all educational equipment without further delay," he said.

The Minister said most schools in the country, apart from a few have modern science and computer laboratories and the Government's main intention is to establish such laboratories in all schools.

Minister Gunawardana said many children have focused attention on the subject of Information Technology as there is a high demand for IT-qualified personnel in Sri Lanka and abroad.

He said sports gear will also be provided to schools to develop the sporting talents of children who wish to take part in local and international sports events.

Minister Gunawardana said the problem of teacher shortages in some schools will be solved by recruiting teachers for subjects such as Science, Mathematics, Accountancy, Economics, English and Information Technology.

He paid attention to the learning of foreign languages by children and said more teachers will be appointed to teach Chinese, French, Korean and Japanese languages in addition to English.

He said most school leavers secure tourism-related jobs here and abroad and therefore, learning foreign languages is essential.

The Minister assured that teaching foreign languages will also commence even in rural schools as securing foreign jobs by school leavers in such areas has drastically increased during the past several months.