President urges Education experts to uplift National Education System

President Maithripala Sirisena this week urged Education experts to confer and bring about a modern-day approach with effective measures to uplift the standards of the National Education system.

The President speaking at the centenary celebrations of St. John’s College, Nugegoda, on Tuesday, questioned the success of the National Schools concept and its practical implementation in improving the standards of the Education System to provide an equal opportunity for students to practice their right to Education.

He said that, though the country has approximately 10,000 schools with 390,000 students receiving education, there is shadow discrimination of students as a certain proportion of schools has been recognized as National Schools, while the majority have no such recognition, which discourage students from studying in such schools. He further questioned the criteria and the guidance under whom the authorities follow in such categorisation of schools.

As a result of the categorisation, many students unable to enter National Schools under various circumstances, would be psychologically affected, discouraged and eventually, left out from the Education system to receive higher Education.

He said that some schools without the National school tag have produced good results with limited resources, while other schools of similar stand- ard have greater resources than a National School in providing better education to students.

He said that the Education system should not be categorised according to ethnicity and religion, with the children barricaded from exercising their right to free education, to create social cohesion and integration.