While spoken English is to be taught in all national schools, starting from grade one from 30 March, the attention of the State Ministry of Women and Child Affairs has been focused on allocating two hours a day for English speaking in every pre-school, The Daily Morning learned.
Speaking to The Daily Morning, the State Minister of Women and Child Affairs, Geetha Kumarasinghe said that the State Ministry had planned to make the necessary arrangements to allocate two hours a day for English speaking in preschools. She said that the implementation of such a programme would definitely help the achievement of the Education Ministry’s objectives to motivate schoolchildren to speak in English. “This is not something that someone told me. I studied this matter and made this decision. Our plan is to allocate two hours of pre-school time for children to speak in English. It is easier for children to learn a language when they are young. So, let’s start from the preschools. Without doing so, how can we expect children in grade one to speak in English? I have already instructed the State Ministry Secretary to make the necessary arrangements in consultation with the District and Divisional Secretaries,” she said.
When queried by The Daily Morning as to whether the relevant Cabinet approval had been granted for the implementation of the said programme, Kumarasinghe said that she has already prepared the relevant letter to be sent to the Cabinet Minister of Women and Child Affairs, President and Minister of Finance, Economic Stabilisation and National Policies Ranil Wickremesinghe. In the letter, she said that Wickremesinghe has been requested to submit the relevant Cabinet paper for approval. She also said that training programmes for preschool teachers would be designed and implemented in line with the proposed programme.
The Minister of Education, Attorney Dr. Susil Premajayantha recently said that considering the specialty and importance of the English language, the Education Ministry had decided to teach spoken English in all national schools, starting from grade one from 30 March. He said that the necessary updates would be made to bring all school syllabi from grades 6 through 9 and 10 through 13 to an international level.
Source By themorning.lk
