Education Minister Dr. Susil Premajayantha said that children should not be sent to school just for the purpose of passing exams.
Minister Premajayantha said that since the purpose of education is to equip children with knowledge, attitudes and skills, children should not be sent to school only for the purpose of making them pass examinations by creating a competitive environment.
The Minister noted that it is expected through educational reforms to stop measuring children’s knowledge only through examinations. Through the proposed education reforms, the emphasis is on measuring the skills acquired by the child for practical activities.
The minister expressed these views in connection with the national programme of introducing the Activity Based Oral English (ABOE) programme to schools for children who enter the Grade One in 2024.
The Education Ministry has introduced the activity-based oral English programme to develop English speaking and listening skills for Grade one and two students of all schools in the country. Children entering Grade 1, this year onward join the ABOE programme.
Although English is taught in schools from the Grade 3, it is recognized as a timely need to provide students with English speaking skills from the primary education stage.
The Ministry has implemented training programmes to prepare primary teachers of Grades 1 and 2 for activity-based oral English teaching. Accordingly, 13,800 teachers have already been trained under this.
