VIDEO: Teaching mother tongue mandatory at Int’l Schools from 2015
July 26, 2014 04:49 pm
The Sri Lankan government has made it mandatory to teach Mother Tongue, Sri Lankan history and religion in all international schools in the country from next year, the Education Minister Bandula Gunawardena said.
Any person or institution is prohibited from starting a school for students between the ages of 5-14 as stated in the 1961 bill, however many things can happen outside of the law.
However, the government still provides education to a majority of the students in Sinhala or Tamil as is their respective mother tongue from Grade 1 to 5, he said after warding scholarships at Kumaratunga Munidasa memorial event on Friday.
A very few violate these laws and provide education in English medium from Grade 1 to 5 while parents decide to pay money and enroll their children to these schools, he said.
Therefore the Cabinet Ministers including President Mahinda Rajapaksa have given me the approval to make it mandatory for the mother tongue, history and respective religions to be taught even at English medium International Schools attended by local students starting from next year, Gunawardena said.
“Therefore even any Sri Lankan student of an international school will have to study his mother’s language, the religion he follows and this country’s history.” However, this does not apply to students of foreign nationalities, he said.
Any person or institution is prohibited from starting a school for students between the ages of 5-14 as stated in the 1961 bill, however many things can happen outside of the law.
However, the government still provides education to a majority of the students in Sinhala or Tamil as is their respective mother tongue from Grade 1 to 5, he said after warding scholarships at Kumaratunga Munidasa memorial event on Friday.
A very few violate these laws and provide education in English medium from Grade 1 to 5 while parents decide to pay money and enroll their children to these schools, he said.
Therefore the Cabinet Ministers including President Mahinda Rajapaksa have given me the approval to make it mandatory for the mother tongue, history and respective religions to be taught even at English medium International Schools attended by local students starting from next year, Gunawardena said.
“Therefore even any Sri Lankan student of an international school will have to study his mother’s language, the religion he follows and this country’s history.” However, this does not apply to students of foreign nationalities, he said.
