Govt.’s new Education Policy effective from 2018: Officials

The Government’s new Education Policy will come into effect from 2018, officials said. The policy currently under preparation, dealing with a range of issues including GCE O/L and A/L syllabuses, will be formally launched by Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe.

Under the new policy, students will have a range of subjects to select from, instead of confining themselves to a particular stream, and in addition, will also have new subjects on offer.

"Students will have several options like the choice of vocational education along with mathematics or science," an official explained.

He said students who select subjects for A/L will go through a counselling process, to ascertain the suitability of the selected subjects. The Principal and teachers of the section will be among those involved in the counselling process.

The main objective of the new policy has been to introduce changes in the Education system, as some 300,000 students enter the Education system annually, with some 60,000 drop- ping out from the O/L classes, and a further 130,000 dropping out from the A/Ls.

"In order to overcome too many dropouts from the Education system changes are being introduced," the officer said.

"Under the new system we will not have groups of failures, as they have the opportunity to produce better results," he said.

"In order to introduce the new policy, Government will have to recruit 120,000 additional teachers and provide them training, particularly in the new subjects to be introduced," he added.