The Education Ministry has already trained 13,800 teachers to teach English to Grade 1 students and in return students will start using English in the classroom.
Education Minister Dr. Susil Premajayantha said that to fulfill the current role of the teacher in creating a future generation who are ready to take up challenges, the use of English, which is essential as a linking language, commenced from yesterday for all children in Grade 1.
He added that this programme will be integrated as a compulsory subject to Grade 2 and Grade 3 allowing students to learn English through the school.
“No professional can continue to depend on previous knowledge since the knowledge is doubled soon. English, which is very important as a linking language, is taught to students from their first day of school hereafter,” he added. “It is my expectation to provide a practical speaking training to overcome nervousness and around 13,800 primary teachers needed for the task have already been trained so far.
The Minister said so while joining the inaugural programme of starting the use of English language for Grade 1 students held at Gangodawila Samudradevi Girls’ Primary School yesterday.
Apart from a few schools, English medium education did not exist in this country after1962. In 2000, to some extent, it was started teaching Advanced Level subjects in the English medium in some schools. Now more than 550 schools in the country children from grade 6 are taught in the English medium.
In addition, the minister said that foreign and local students in international schools in Sri Lanka are educated in English from the beginning and the future employment opportunities in both local and abroad are mostly open for them.
This programme should provide basic education from Grade 1 to 5 in mother tongue as there is no expectation to ignore the Sinhala language in violation of the constitutional law. However with the successful implementation of the project, parents’ expectations are bearing fruit and there will be opportunities to open up to the world.
He said that a pleasant environment will be created in the classroom for both the teacher and students to engage in practical activities and happily engage in the learning-teaching process.