- Pilot program in 20 schools in June
The Minister of Education Dr. Susil Premajayantha says that the teaching of subjects Information
Technology and Artificial Intelligence will be started in grades 6 to 9 and from grades 10 to 13
from 2024 with the aim of promoting the field of education in this country in line with the
international educational standard and its pilot program will be started at the end of June in 20
schools.
He mentioned this while participating in the presents awarding ceremony of the essay
competition held for commemorating the Commonwealth Day at the Ministry of Education
today.
In addition to teaching of these new subjects, various steps have been taken to popularize broadly
the use of English language among student community and this situation will be further
developed in the future, the minister said. Accordingly, at the beginning of this school year 2023
in all schools island wide practical English speaking started from grade one but when the English
language was traditionally taught from grade 3 there was a trend among the students decreasing
the effort for learning it due to the reasons like stage fright, he said. It is expected through this
program to avoid the weakness of students in explaining something to others in English although
they have the good ability to read and write in English, the minister further stated at this
occasion.
Furthermore, through the implementation of educational transformation process along with the
STEAM education method it is expected to provide to students the skills of practical use of
conceptual knowledge they gained in the classrooms under the general education, the minister
stated at this event. According to that, through the implementation of STEAM education system
based on the subjects Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts and Mathematics it is not
necessary to suffer preparing for exams for a long time and also it is not necessary to obtain more
marks at the year end exams but the students can score more marks through the modular system
implemented day to day within the classroom, he said.
