The Hon. Sivagnanam Shritharan

¶ 01 Hon. Speaker, thank you for permitting me under Standing Order 27(2) to raise questions with the Hon. (Dr.) Harini Amarasuriya, Prime Minister and Minister of Education, Higher Education and Vocational Education.

¶ 02 Hon. Prime Minister, new initiatives are being introduced to Sri Lanka’s education sector. Under curriculum reforms, some orientations have been conducted under your leadership. It is said the new curriculum will reduce students’ burden and introduce innovation and inquiry-based learning. However, preparing timetables for 18 subjects—15 compulsory and three electives—for Grade 6 involves difficulties; requiring students to choose two subjects under trans-disciplinary competencies is problematic; and the student learning time that has been 265 hours per term is said to become 365 hours under the new curriculum—an increase of 30%—thus increasing the burden. In religious subjects such as Hinduism, Tamil histories, symbols and identities are being systematically excluded.

¶ 03 1. Will the new reforms address these concerns? When will the new curriculum be implemented? Will a White Paper be published?

¶ 04 2. In the National Education Commission and the Curriculum Committees of the National Institute of Education, are Tamil-speaking officials included?

¶ 05 3. Will you table in Parliament the list of persons involved in the curriculum policy or White Paper processes?

¶ 06 4. In the Curriculum Reform Implementation Committee, how many Tamil-medium professors and subject specialists are included?