- The Minister of Education Susil Premajayantha
The Minister of Education Dr. Susil Premajayantha says that early childhood education is made compulsory for the children completing the age of four years further expanding the free education opportunities provided freely from grade one to the first degree by the government of this country that belongs to the handful of countries in the world providing free education. The government will provide assistance for the children who cannot afford paying money for it. Early childhood development centers can be conducted in primary schools according to the necessity where the space is available and it will be a kind of solution for the schools facing the challenge of closing down. The initial step of making the transformative educational reforms a success is the development of early childhood education of the children in this country, the minister further said.
The minister stated this while participating as the chief guest in a program held at ‘Waters Edge’, Battaramulla for launching the school health promotion month.
In the process of standardizing the pre-school education properly in this country in line with the international level, the attitude of ‘Preschool is another school before going to school’ must be completely changed, said the minister. Presenting his ideas about the school nutrition program of this country, the minister said that in comparison to the year 2023, the number of the entire student population receiving midday meal benefit will be increased in a considerable percentage in the year 2024. And also the actions will be taken to release the students from the burden of carrying heavy school bags by providing the facility of keeping the their text books in the school and go back to the house freely and create an inspiring environment for teachers and students to engage in their teaching and learning process, said the minister. He also said that it must be done in a very precautionary way when comparing the free education system with the education provided charging money.
The officers from the Ministries of Education and Health, the Secretaries and the Directors from zones and provinces, Principals and the officers from the institutions, World Health Organization, UNICEF, World Food Program and ‘Save the Children’ participated in this occasion.
