Delegating Education Decision Making to Provinces is a Constitutional MandateNot a Discretion for the Ministry of Education We are pleased to note that that the Ministry of Education has delegated policymaking during the fuel crisis to provincial authorities with decisions on keeping school opened delegated down to the school level with oversight by zonal authorities. Additionally, ministry has also announced delegating teacher deployment responsibilities to Provincial authorities with exceptions regarding national schools. While we are pleased with these developments, we wish to reiterate that the Constitution indeed delegates “supervision of management of state schools” and other responsibilities to the provinces. Further, duties and functions of the Minister for Education, as per the latest gazette or ones before, do not entail decision-making regarding schools. As stated in the latest gazette, the duties and functions of the Minister for Education is “Formulation of policies, programs and projects, monitoring and evaluation in regard to the subject of education and those subjects that come under the purview of Departments, Statutory Institutions and Public Corporations listed in the gazette.
EFSL PRESS RELEASE #12Access to low-cost testing kits is essential is to keep schools openedNovember 10, 2021 Perils of keeping schools closed are now universally acknowledged. In fact, the Worldwide Commission to Educate All Kids (post-pandemic) is calling for an international treaty that would be binding on countries to not close schools except during extreme natural disasters or war. Countries around the world have reopened schools after 20 months but the challenge of keeping them open remains. After evaluating the strategies adopted by countries across the world, we propose the following set of actions for the Government of Sri Lanka. To minimize infections: • Complete vaccinating all eligible children, teachers, and other adults in schools • Continue to emphasize sanitation and distancing requirements • Make available a stock of low-cost, rapid antigen test kits for self-testing • Allow school level decision making with oversight by the divisional Medical Officer of Health (MoH) Many countries like India, Singapore, the UK, Israel, Canada are routinely using self-test antigen kits.
විභාග: අද හා ඉදිරිය | தேர்வுகள்: இன்று மற்றும் எதிர்காலம் A policy dialogue on “ Examinations: Present and Future”‘ was held by the Education Forum Sri Lanka (EFSL) on 16th, October 2021, via Zoom. LINKS: PD #19 (In Sinhala) PRESENTATIONS: National Student Assessment Framework – Commissioner-General Examinations, Mr. Sanath Pujitha (15-20 minutes) Assessments & Examinations during the Pandemic· Mr. Harshana Perera, Principal, Asian International School – (15 min)· Mr. Lal Dissanyake, Director, Matugama Education Zone· Mr.
September 04, 2021 HE the President, Gotabhaya Rajapakse Hon Prime Minister, Mahinda Rajapakse, MP Hon Minister of Education, Mr. Dinesh Gunewardene, MP Hon Leader of the Opposition, Sajith Premadasa, MP The urgent need to prepare for the opening of schools This is in reference to the previous letter we wrote in July 2021 signed by several academics, educationists, and health sector personnel. (https://educationforum.lk/2021/07/press-release-6-a-letter-to-authorities-about-the-covid-education-crisis/). With a teacher strike or not, schools in Sri Lanka have been closed for over 18 months due to the ongoing pandemic.
Pfizer vaccine to schoolchildren after health authority approves Source: Dailynews The Pfizer vaccine will be given to the schoolchildren of the relevant age groups as soon as the medical approval is received, President Gotabaya Rajapaksa said. He made this observation at the meeting of the Special Committee on COVID-19 Control held through online technology under the chair of President Gotabaya Rajapaksa this morning (3). Read more: https://www.dailynews.lk/2021/09/03/local/258415/pfizer-vaccine-schoolchildren-after-health-authority-approves Education Debacle by Dr.
Teacher Crisis Q&A Press Release, August 18, 2021 (a) Is this salary issue truly a ‘crisis’ as portrayed by the teachers? Yes, because for about two decades, on average, all teachers have been paid a basic or starting salary of less than ~ Rs 35,000 per month. This is important because the education sector, on which future generations & socio-economic advancement of this country rests, depends almost exclusively on the contentment of 241,000 teachers. A fruitful teacher-student interaction is an answer to educational advancement at least in part. Due to this crisis students have been without any substantial education for the last several months.
ගුරු වැටුප් ප්රශ්නය: එදා, අද සහ ඉදිරිය |ஆசிரியர் சம்பள கேள்வி: பிறகு, இப்போது மற்றும் எதிர்காலம் | A policy dialogue on “ Teacher Salary Issues: Past, Present and the Future ” was held by the Education Forum Sri Lanka (EFSL) on Aug 14th, 2021, via Zoom. LINKS:Full Video: PD#18 (In Sinhala) PRESENTATIONS
Principal: Mr W. A. JanakaBelummahara Rahula Vidyalaya is a small school in Gampaha district in Sri Lanka. It has 375 students studying under a small group of academic, management and support staff. Currently classes are held from year 1 to 11 where 36 students are getting ready to face the GCE OL exam this year.
A policy dialogue on “What should be our policy on English Education” was held by the Education Forum Sri Lanka (EFSL) on July 10th, 2021, via Zoom. LINKS:Full Video: PD#17, 2 hours 6 minutes (In Sinhala) PRESENTATIONS 5:00 – 5:10 Welcome and Introduction (Dr. Sujata Gamage, Co-founder, Education Forum Sri Lanka) 5:10 – 6:10 Panel Discussion moderated by Dr. Sujata Gamage Dr. Darshana Samaraweera, Deputy Director-General, National Institute of Education Dr.
Naming dates for exams is not enough; Ministry should have a plan to get students ready.Media Release, July 12, 2021 (In English/Sinhala/Tamil) The government announced a few days ago that the Grade 5 scholarship examination will be held on October 03 and the GCE Advanced Level examination from October 04 to October 31. Then we hear that the decision would be reversed. Unfortunately, except for these kinds of last-minute announcements which are then withdrawn, we have yet to hear a consistent policy on examinations and assessments or the education process during a pandemic from our Ministry of Education. Institutions including the World Health Organization (WHO) have long maintained that the epidemic will persist well into 2022 if not after.