BY EDWARD THEOPHILUS

I read a news report in Daily Mirror that the education in Sri Lanka from next year would be in the English medium. It is a good decision and it would support reducing social differences in the country. As we have seen for a long-time education in the English medium is an essential policy decision while teaching Sinhala should be a major concentrated subject in schools. The total student population from Grade one to Grade 12 is smaller and teaching English language and literature would be the strategy to broadly understand the use of language and vocabulary.

English medium education will be an effective decision to change social divisions in the country. As a result, the decision would be supported to create a multicultural society with the changing attitude of people. Reducing the giving priority to selected people with English knowledge and insulting people based on the lack of English knowledge would be removed by teaching in English medium and giving priority to people with English knowledge will be ended by new policy decisions in education.

The policy decision of Sri Lanka’s government decision to offer education in the English medium would be opposed by some groups such as International Schools owners, tuition masters, people who communicate in English to show off as a special group in society and many others. The opposing groups of people would be a group in society who have manipulated conduct to show that they are a specific group of people who are depicted a mental weakness.

Sinhala and Tamil should be specific knowledge areas and kids may need good knowledge of the mother tongue and contribution in either Sinhala or Tamil in rural and urban areas would not be strange behaviour of people but it will give value to the knowledge of Sinhala and Tamil. It will remove a major social issue and social fabric in the country. Kids will not waste time and money learning English because the media of instruction in schools would naturally promote to use and learn the English language and support many organizations to recruit quality staff and increase productivity.

The other significant impact would be the reduction in competition to enter urban schools, which means knowledge gained from whichever school is treated as identical and the broad of knowledge would not different whether it is gained in English or any other language.     

Providing education in the English medium would reduce additional work such as translating books into Sinhala or Tamil language and the country has been spending funds for this translation purpose and giving knowledge in English and Sinhala /Tamil might support changing the society.

For implementing this policy decision, Sri Lanka needs more teachers who could communicate and offer education in the English medium and the donor countries need to provide financial and other support to Sri Lanka. The special requirement is once in three years school teachers should be offered a training program, which reviews the quality of teaching in the English medium. 

New policy decision support school leavers for further education and accepting work in foreign countries and sending foreign money to Sri Lanka.