The Minister of Education Dr. Susil Premajayantha says that if we do not create a generation of children competent with vocational skills through an effective transformation within the field of education including the schools, the future generation of children that we bring out from the education system will not perform a productive mission to the country and the world as well.
He further stated here that while providing the theoretical knowledge related to the subjects Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts and Mathematics within the classrooms and laboratories, the practical experiences will be given based on the competencies through the STEAM educational concept. And the children socializing through the education system including schools are empowered with the vocational education in the future. As the foundation for this purpose, the first step of this program was recently started at the Royal College Colombo with the coordination of all provinces.
The people who cannot conform to this change go against it but we have to move forward overcoming those challenges, said the minister. It has already been started to teach English language to the students in grade one using the speaking practice and it will be continued in collaboration with the institutions like British Council. In this way the knowledge of English language of the students in government schools will be increased to the level of the students in international schools, the minister further said. He also mentioned that through this effort the education is shifted from the exam centered one to a practical study in pleasant smart classroom.
The minister expressed this information while participating in a media discussion regarding the exhibition titled ‘Sri Lanka Skills Expo 2023’ scheduled to be held at Bandaranayake Memorial International Conference Hall, Colombo on 12, 13 and 14 of May 2023. This type of skills exhibition is held in Sri Lanka for the first time and it is conducted with the support of various local and foreign organizations and the business community.
Further expressing his ideas at this occasion, the minister said that within the seventy five years of free education history in this country with the exam centered traditional evaluation system, still the vocational skills can be acquired only after the school and university education except in few areas but the situation is totally different in developed countries. NSBM – GREEN UNIVERSITY of the National School of Business Management has developed the field of vocational education in this country increasing 92% of the student vocational skills and in line with that in the future the state owned university system also will be directed towards the vocational education within the new educational transformation. The skill based education is crucial for increasing the amount of foreign exchange received at present from more than 1.2 million Sri Lankan immigrant workers, the minister said at this event.
