Graduates to suit the needs of the modern world:

Varsities to shift to student-centred learning

by Uditha Kumarasinghe

The Higher Education Ministry has decided to introduce a student-centered learning method in all universities from January next year to produce a K-SAM graduate.

The concept of this K-SAM graduate is to produce a skilled graduate equipped with knowledge, skills, attitude and a proper mindset. The prime objective of this concept is to shift from the present teacher-centered teaching in universities to studentcentered learning, Higher Education Ministry Secretary Dr. Sunil Jayantha Nawaratne told the Sunday Observer yesterday.

“We hope President Mahinda Rajapaksa will also make a special financial provision in Budget 2014 to implement this program.

The President has given guidelines to the Ministry to produce a graduate to suit the needs of the modern world,” he said.

The Ministry hopes to introduce this concept in 17 universities as a national program which will benefit nearly 100,000 students in these universities.

The Ministry has decided to train university lecturers to implement this program successfully in all universities. The classroom environment in universities will also be subjected to a massive transformation.

Dr. Nawaratne said the K-SAM concept has already been implemented in some medical, engineering, management, IT and agriculture faculties of universities and the Visual and Performing Arts University.

The Ministry strongly believes that university lecturers should be mentors of students.