Twenty one national schools to be built
The Education Ministry is to set up 21 ‘Super National schools’ – one each for almost every district, in a bid to reduce the pressure on popular schools.
Colombo, Kurunegala, Mirigama and Gampaha districts will not have new national schools as there are four existing national schools, which will be upgraded.
An Education Ministry senior official said the schools will be constructed with all facilities including sports facilities, science labs, large playgrounds and IT labs and classrooms.
The schools will accommodate students above Grade Six, including students who pass the Grade Five scholarship exams and other Grade Five students.
The ‘Super National schools’ will have a separate Z-score in each district, higher than the normal Z-score marking in each respective district.
“This is due to the extra facilities provided to the schools, and their high standards,” the official said.
The schools will be ‘Tri-Lingual schools.’
“Each grade will have six classrooms and the number of classrooms for each language will depend on the popular language in the respective district,” the official added.
In Sinhala populated areas there will be four class rooms for Sinhala students and one each for Tamil and English medium. In Tamil populated areas there will be four Tamil classrooms, the official said.
The schools will be located away from the towns, to reduce the number of students migrating from the villages to the towns on a daily basis.
The officials said they hope to admit about 2,500 students to each of the school.
- Damith Wickremasekara