English medium from Grade 1 next year: Minister

Daring youth Wednesday, 07 September 2022 05:41 PM

Amazing and astounding. Hadn't expect this major breakthrough with the education system.

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Mousuf Wednesday, 07 September 2022 05:59 PM

This been said many times and times. But never practically happened. No guarantee this time either.

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Citizen k Wednesday, 07 September 2022 06:32 PM

Excellent idea minister as all latest information appears in English and only then it is translated into other languages.Lots of preparation and teachers are needed to implement this plan. I'm sure retired teachers in English can help prepare the teachers. Best of luck.

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ANTON Wednesday, 07 September 2022 06:41 PM

AND THEIR PARENTS WILL BE SENT TO SPECIAL ENGLISH CLASSES INORDER TO COMMUNICATE WITH THEIR CHILDREN.

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Super Yakko Wednesday, 07 September 2022 06:42 PM

At last it had dawned on the yakko politicians that ENGLISH is THE WORLD LANGUAGE not Sinhalese nor Tamil nor Chinese.

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Mahesh Wednesday, 07 September 2022 06:51 PM

Do it ASAP. Sinhala doesn't have a value even in our motherland.

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Historian Wednesday, 07 September 2022 06:53 PM

When America was violently stolen from the “trusting indigenous people” and created as a new country about 250 years ago by the poor and starving Europeans who fled from Europe, there was a debate as to what language to be adopted as the official language of America, the final competition was between the English Language and the German Language. And at the voting English Language won just by a narrow margin. That was how English became the language of the “ no pedigree “ and “ no language “ Americans.

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Hassanda Wednesday, 07 September 2022 07:16 PM

A positive approach on the Education of future Generation it is true Rural children lack latest Know how on the IT world and the scientific World and English is a must to advance at a Rapid phase

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Anne Karunaratne Wednesday, 07 September 2022 07:19 PM

Very good move but who qualifies for English medium education?? Burgers, Tamils and Muslims? Parents will also need to be given some lessons in order for them to be able to communicate with their children. Most importantly, hope there will be enough teachers who can actually teach in English cos nowadays English teachers hilariously mispronounce and their grammar is also quite bad!!

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Dee Wednesday, 07 September 2022 08:00 PM

Good move! Until an election comes along with a promise of a repeat of 1956. Victory for sure but certainly a loss for our nation on the long run!

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Citizen k Wednesday, 07 September 2022 08:12 PM

Only negative comments or pointing out communities that may benefit is not what we are speaking about .It is time to think we are all Sri Lankans and this will befit the whole country. Let us come up with positive suggestion.Looking forward to the day when we can converse with all nations on equal basis in English.About the hilarious pronunciation we should blame the education system and administrators who created such standards.

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Zarook Cassim Wednesday, 07 September 2022 08:47 PM

I greatly welcome this move. As one who started the first ever English medium school following the local syllabus, I have seen the fruits of my venture. Patchwork in education will not pay. We need an all-encompassing educational policy to which all political parties should subscribe, unwaveringly. We need a large amount of supporting systems to make this effort a success. Unlike city students, rural students need these more. Wi-Fi coverage in every nook and corner of the country. Tablets for every rural student must be provided first. Government must allow more private English medium primary schools to be open. English is no more a Kaduwa - it is the only way for self and national progress.

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Asoka Malukanva Thursday, 08 September 2022 09:04 AM

India established similar a long time ago. There now develop extreme competitiveness with parents pushing to get their children in the English medium Grade 1 when it actually starts. Teaching science and maths in English from Grade 6 will be a massive help to those children who had missed out doing English medium. It would be only be mad nationalists would would oppose teaching those subjects in English. Looking forward to seeing what crazy talk that comes out about the bad aspects for students to learn maths and science in English.

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Jef Thursday, 08 September 2022 09:22 AM

Banda who wanted English out from the system ever since the smart English speaking left the country one way or nother only very few can talk or communicate today even in the parliament It's big ask but never toolate..most spoken language in the world very good decision for future kids

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Ruwan Thursday, 08 September 2022 09:37 AM

Very good move. this decision would have been taken long ago. but not sure until this happen.

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suresh Thursday, 08 September 2022 10:01 AM

probably the best decision taken by this govt. Along with this provide IT education also, then the people will be equipped to seek their own pastures anywhere in the world, instead of sending our girls has house maids to middle east

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Anne Karunaratne Thursday, 08 September 2022 10:25 AM

Citizen K, of course the blame is on the education system and administrators for this pathetic situation in education! Even now there is an option in schools for English medium education but they are selected mainly based on their ethnicity, hence the question of who qualifies for English medium!

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Seqi Thursday, 08 September 2022 11:06 AM

Just do what New Zealand teachers did to Maori kids for most of last century.... beat the shit out of the kids if caught speaking Maori in the playground or class. The parents soon got the message, forbidding their kids from speaking their mother tongue at home..... generations of families were made dysfunctional, oral histories were lost..... But hey, what goes around comes around and now many NZ schools offer full immersion courses in Maori language and skills. Better live and let live which is the true Sri Lanka way..... better than learning languages for business skills is to learn languages to understand each other.....the business acumen will follow, naturally.

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Maqs Thursday, 08 September 2022 11:13 AM

Good move but what about the resources? Do we have qualified teachers to teach in the Primary classes???

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Sue Kirthisinghe Thursday, 08 September 2022 11:40 AM

Please ensure that the teachers are capable of teaching the children correct English grammar and pronunciation. Simply having trained teachers will not help unless they are well versed in the proper use of the language.

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Prasath Thursday, 08 September 2022 01:37 PM

Good move appreciate it very much. it will take many years to train the teachers in English, even tamil medium majority govt teachers have very low IQ, not suitable at all.

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Citizen k Thursday, 08 September 2022 02:43 PM

Anne karunaratne the new proposal is to teach all kids and hence selected group or race does not come into play. Please read the proposal once more. Whether it will be implemented is a million dollar question.

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Anne Karunaratne Thursday, 08 September 2022 06:03 PM

Vijayapala Karu, you have not had this unfortunate experience where children of parents who are unable to speak English, have mislead the parents with their newly acquired language skills! Those parents won't even question the children since they think their children know better than them since the children know English!! AND there have been many incidents where children have been ashamed of their non English speaking parents!! I myself have come across many children like that, hence the comment about parents learning English! It's very sad...those parents become so helpless... Of course this is the fault of the education system and it will take a very long time indeed to correct these.. maybe my comment sounded rude but that was certainly not my intention and I should have elaborated more on the topic! My comment on hilarious mispronunciation was not intended to sound rude, it was based on my personal experience when a person said "can't Fark here" for "can't park here"!!

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Shelton Thursday, 08 September 2022 10:10 PM

@Mahesh: Sinhala is and will always be the national language of Sri Lanka, if you did not know; and English is spoken around the world!

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Ceylonese Friday, 09 September 2022 10:01 AM

It is a really embarrassing that none of our cricketers playing in the current Sri Lanka cricket team could hardly speak good English and needed an interpreter when interviewed on TV overseas whereas earlier the majority of the cricketers in the national team came from private schools with a background in english language.

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