Sri Lankan Minister of State for Education V S Radhakrishnan has said, ” The present government has put forward many things to improve the education sector of the country”.
Speaking at the 10th World Education Summit in New Delhi earlier this month, the minister shared about Sri Lankan government’s plan for the education sector of the country. He said that President Maithripala Sirisena and Prime Minister Ranil Wickremsinghe are focussing on boosting the education sector.
He said, “The Sri Lankan government in its budget has allocated six percent of the country’s GDP towards bringing improvement in the education sector”, divided into school education and higher education.
The minister said, “The government has made 13 years of education compulsory for every student in the country. If they failed to clear General Certificate of Education Ordinary Level (GCE O Level), they can opt for vocational training with their relevant subject or for training in Information Technology (IT).”
“There are about 4.5 million students studying in the Sri Lankan schools. There are about 2,11,000 teachers and about 10,100 schools in Sri Lanka. Out of these schools over 350 schools are under Central Government which are also known as “National Schools”. These National Schools are running as ‘Super Schools’ as they are provided with all the facilities by the government and are equipped with all the latest technologies and follow the best global practices. All the other schools are handled by the provincial councils,” he said
“We are also trying that the students after leaving the schools go for the jobs not the ordinary ones but the better ones i.e. the white collar jobs. To achieve this we have set up 42 vocational training institutes and in 2018 we would like to add 105 more such institutes to improve the job scenario in the country. It is government’s effort to not only create jobs but also develop entrepreneurial skills in the students,” he added.
Describing about the Sri Lanka, he said, “Sri Lanka is a small country. The biggest source of Sri Lanka’s revenue is tourism and tea and rubber export. There are around 22 million people living in Sri Lanka and to administer them the country has nine provincial councils.”
