Govt. to broad-base education: PM

Government hopes to give schools the freedom to choose the subjects they need to teach in their respective institutions, Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe said at Kandy's Trinity College prize giving.

He said the government might focus on introducing subjects such as dress designing and hair dressing to schools.

“This way students studying for the advanced level could learn the basics before attending vocational training centers. What we hope to do is to give you the opportunity to plan your career in school itself,” the Prime Minister said and added that character building was also important and this aspect too would be looked into.

He said the Government was also focusing on ensuring that children obtain employment as soon as they leave school.

“We want to see that children obtain employment when they leave school and that is why we have focused on industrial development as well. We will also take steps to develop the Kandy District keeping in mind the focus on tourism,” the Prime Minister said and added that a cultural centre would be set up in the vicinity of the Bogambara Prisons Complex while developing the Colombo-Hambantota-Kandy corridor with two air ports and two sea ports.
The Prime Minister stressed the need for all political parties to get together if the country was to achieve economic progress.

“We are ready to work with the Opposition, with the JVP and any other political parties. Let us rally round President Maithripala Sirisena to achieve these goals. If we don’t do it now even countries such like Afghanistan will move ahead leaving us still struggling to succeed,” he added. (Yohan Perera)