The Minister of Education Dr. Susil Premajayantha while participating in the pilot program of “Sathi Pasala” held today at Ananda College Colombo stated that the ‘Sathi Pasala’ program can be termed as an introduction consciousness to the school children as a reminding of educational goals for creating disciplined and active citizens through rational thinking and developing the skills of creating new inventions not deviating them from sensitivity and empathy while generating soft skills in the minds of children. This program had been organized collectively by “Sathi Pasala” Foundation and The Ministry of Education.
In the event of various disastrous happenings in the recent past when the entire society including students, teachers and parents had been facing a severe oppressive situation and about 50% of learning activities withheld while many extra and co-curricular activities are been inactive, a severe effort is being taken to bring that situation into normal. Many countries in the world have surpassed us and entered into a new transformative era in education and we are still approaching to that level, said the minister and because of we have to find the solutions for prevailing attitudes and skills in our society while preparing for the transformation in education based on the knowledge, attitudes and skills and therefore, the year 2023 will be a decisive one, the minister mentioned in this occasion.
In an environment where we have to go forward soon with the technology for overcoming the challenges, working with consciousness is not limited to a particular religious section but it is so important for all human society and it can also be analyzed scientifically. The program for developing consciousness must not be stopped after practicing for two weeks but it should be promoted continuously, said the minister. He also said that a pilot project of this program will be implemented covering all 10,155 schools in the island for 12 weeks on every Wednesday in the first term starting from 27th of March. After that the number of days will be increased up to three as Monday, Wednesday and Friday and it only takes only one minute from a period from the periods in a week and it is expected to implement this program continuously overcoming the emerging challenges, the minister said.
The education system must be upgraded to a level in which the knowledge must be sought within the classroom with a good teacher student relationship and it must be given to others also and the message of consciousness can be taken to about 60 hundred thousand parents through about 42 hundred thousand students and it can be socialized, the minister pointed out.
The venerable monks, other clergymen and the officers including the Secretary of Education Mr. M.N. Ranasingha had joined in this program that had been organized by the Ministry of Education and “Sathi Pasal” foundation.