The Hon. J.C. Alawathuwala

¶ 01 Thank you very much for the opportunity, Hon. Presiding Member.

¶ 02 Education reform is essential. Society is constantly evolving with new technologies; education and pedagogy must also continually change. The Hon. Prime Minister, as Education Minister, has studied these changes and is moving swiftly.

¶ 03 Even before Independence, C.W.W. Kannangara brought unprecedented reforms; we enjoyed their benefits. Subsequent Ministers also brought reforms. Former President Ranil Wickremesinghe, as Education Minister, also introduced many reforms and we moved forward to some extent. But to produce good citizens for our society and the world, we cannot journey alone; we must go with the world. A child entering Grade 1 in 2025 must, over the next 20 years, become a well-informed citizen; we must align with global trends.

¶ 04 We spoke of developed countries like Finland, New Zealand and the United States. They have advanced education systems. Even if we lack their material resources, we have human resources. With proper management and teacher training, we can offer our children an education on par with developed nations, and our country can become developed within a few decades. It must begin with education.

¶ 05 Hon. Harsha de Silva spoke about AI. New technologies are essential to our children. Today, a 10- to 15-year-old often surpasses us in technology. But can every child in our country access it?

¶ 06 The President said many schools have fewer than 50 children. We cannot close all such schools; there are complexities. For some primary schools with only Grades 1-5, parents struggle to send children more than 10 km for further schooling. We should study how to implement changes without wasting human resources. Some schools could be closed and students consolidated elsewhere.

¶ 07 We must also acknowledge that resources are not distributed equally among schools. That is why parents strive so hard for the Grade 5 Scholarship Exam, causing heavy psychological pressure on children. It happens because resources are not evenly spread. It is not easy to fix.

¶ 08 Hon. Prime Minister, it was proposed to allocate 6 per cent of the budget to education, but it was not feasible. Hence resource disparities persist. We need to allocate more funds to education. Also, rather than exam-centric education—