Spoken English to school curriculum

by Ananda Kannangara

The Education Ministry yesterday assured that `Spoken English’ will be introduced to the school curriculum and also for the GCE (O/L) Examination commencing from year 2011.

According to Education Ministry statistics, the ability of spoken English of 80 percent children in public schools is not in sound position and therefore the `Spoken English’ subject must be introduced to the school curriculum.

Education Minister Bandula Gunaweardana told the Sunday Observer that President Mahinda Rajapaksa realised the importance of learning English along with Information Technology (IT) by students and named the year 2009 as the year of `IT and English’.

He said a good knowledge of English Language is needed to face future global challenges and therefore every child must be fluent in English reading, writing and speaking.

The Minister also said the knowledge of English is necessary to learn not only the subject `Information Technology, but also other subjects such as Science and Mathematics.

“As we know majority important books, magazines and journals are published in the English Language and therefore, teachers too must be given a comprehensive knowledge of the language for the benefit of younger generation,”.

The Education Minister also said to fulfil this task his Ministry will launch a massive Spoken English language program for the benefit of Government teachers, especially those who lack the English conversation ability.

The Minister also said that 500 English teachers were appointed to Government schools last week to teach Advanced Level subjects including Mathematics, Science, Commerce and Accounting in the English medium. We have also planned to recruit more teachers in the coming months and thereafter no one could complain about the teacher shortages in the country.