The Hon. Dilith Jayaweera

¶ 01 Mr. Presiding Member, the apprehensions around education reform and the challenges facing this House should be discussed together. As citizens raised on free education, we must state plainly: for various reasons, our free education is under severe challenge; the remaining bulwark is at risk of collapse through these reforms if done wrong.

¶ 02 Education has long needed reform. But we must be clear on the objective: reforms must not degrade standards or further weaken free education. We need reforms aligned to global change that elevate the child, but with a clear purpose.

¶ 03 I have thrice urged that reforms proceed under a pilot programme. We never opposed research or trials—only asked for a structured pilot. Even many here don’t know where these proposals came from. It looks like a patchwork lifted from elsewhere. Modular learning is accepted globally and is needed—but “module” is a method, not a license for chaos. What we see is destruction.

¶ 04 In our school days we had the copybook (pasrūl) for handwriting. This proposal abolishes it: the printed book gives no scope to write even five letters; books can’t be taken home; copybooks are gone. Scrapping only the Grade 6 English module is not enough—the entire reform package needs to be put under a proper pilot, or we waste billions. Today, children in Grade 1 are being used as the test subjects.

¶ 05 The Opposition Leader was right: Grade 1 classes are told to procure TVs and sound systems; teachers lack printed guides, relying on online PDFs and over 40 QR codes, requiring smartphones, displays, and audio.

¶ 06 Who is strangling free education? In a Parliament that has seldom represented the broad base of society, you are forcing this through with your own hands.

¶ 07 Also note: in our recent history children received uniforms, but today many still haven’t. Further, our religion and State are under pressure due to an insensitive statement by the President in Jaffna that has shaken communities and stoked ethnic-religious tension. If it was a mistake, he should retract it. Sri Lanka is bound to the Buddhist Sasana. Venerable Balangoda Kassapa Thero is in remand; beyond the legalities, the politics behind such actions and the social media vilification of the Sangha by certain funded groups are troubling.

¶ 08 This State stands upon the Buddhist Sasana and the righteous deities: we must protect all our religious and ethnic communities and avoid promoting any chauvinism.

¶ 09 I also commend to Members the short booklet “Rājyaya Kumakata Da?” (What is the State for?) by Dr. Channa Jayasumana, which I place in the Library.