IT facilities for all remote schools from 2013

by Ananda Kannangara

The Education Ministry has assured that all schools in remote areas will be provided with fully-fledged Information Technology (IT) laboratories from next year and called upon schoolchildren, school leavers and young job seekers to pay extra attention to the subjects of IT and English.

According to statistics, 90 percent of white collar jobs in the local and foreign employment market today are for those who excelled in English and IT.

Education Minister Bandula Gunawardane told the Sunday Observer that in addition to the Web Patasala educational program, which is highly popular in schools at present, several other computer related educational subjects will also be introduced to the school curriculum from next year. The objective of the Government is to make drastic changes in Sri Lanka's education system which will help students find employment easily after their school and university education.

The Minister highlighted the importance of every student studying these two subjects irrespective of them following Arts, Science or Commerce streams at the GCE (O/L) Examination.

According to the new education system, students are also encouraged to improve their English speaking skills.

A special subject will be introduced from the GCE (O/L) Examination and it is compulsory for students to complete six core subjects for the GCE (O/L) Examination from 2013. They are the mother tongue (Sinhala /Tamil), second language (English), Mathematics, Science, Social Studies and Religion.

"Accordingly, students will have to pass three optional subjects in relation to their chosen stream of study to qualify for the Advanced Level examination," he said.

The Minister further said that a large percentage of students will be encouraged to follow Science and Commerce subjects from next year, considering the increasing employment opportunities in these fields.