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Mother tongue, religion, history compulsory in int’l schools

15 Mar 2014 - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}

The Cabinet has endorsed a proposal to teach the mother tongue, religion and history as compulsory subjects for local students from next year at private and international schools operating in the country, a minister said yesterday.

Obtained Cabinet approval for his proposal and that he would issue the necessary gazette notification nextweek

Education Minister Bandula Gunawardane told Daily Mirror that he had obtained Cabinet approval for his proposal and that he would issue the necessary gazette notification next week.

According to the gazette notification the mother tongue and religion will be taught as compulsory subjects from Grade-1 while History would be taught from Grade-6 onwards.

“The Parliamentary Consultative Committee on Education has also approved my proposals. I have already instructed Ministry Secretary Anura Dissanayake to prepare the gazette notification to be issued next week. It will be implemented from January 1 next year,” the minister said.

He said there were concerns that some international and private schools might not offer these subjects in their curriculum.

“These subjects are compulsory only for local students studying at these schools. Some private schools are successfully teaching these subjects,” he said.

Sri Lanka has 78 private schools and 700 international schools with a student population of some 500,000.

The minister said a special unit would be set up at the Education Ministry to regulate the operation of international schools and monitor the implementation of this decision.
“We will set guidelines and standards for them to function. International schools in other countries are not allowed to function without the supervision of their Ministries of Education,” he said.(Kelum Bandara)

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Mother tongue, religion, history compulsory in int’l schools

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