President’s address to the nation: English and IT compulsory subjects for university students
View(s):For the first time in Sri Lanka, steps will be taken to make it mandatory for university students to learn English language and Information Technology as subjects, President Gotabaya Rajapaksa said in his address to the nation this week.
“If a large number of graduates who received their education at the expense of public money are unemployed for a long time, it means there is a fault in the education system. We plan to rectify this error in the future through university education reforms,” President Rajapaksa said.
“As I have pledged, the Government has taken steps to develop the Open University system and expand access to distance education to facilitate all students who pass the G.C.E. (A/L) Examinations so they can receive university level education in addition to the increase of the university student intake capacity,” the President said.
He also said plans were going ahead to enroll 10,000 new students for the Bachelor of Technology degree programme in open universities next year. From the first academic year onwards, these students will be provided a university education while they are employed. Plans were also underway to increase the capacity of universities each year in the same manner, he said.
City universities in ten selected districts with no higher education institutes would be set up in the coming years, President Rajapaksa said.
According to the President, the Government has established a separate Education Reforms State Ministry and two task forces to implement educational reforms to meet the demands of the modern world.
He also said 1,000 schools across the country were being upgraded to the national level.
President Rajapaksa said his Government was creating the opportunity for nurses to be given Bachelor’s Degree level qualifications instead of a nursing diploma, thereby opening doors for professionally qualified nurses to enter the foreign job market.
The President also said that plans were underway to provide higher educational opportunities for sports men and women, to pave the way for a sports economy and set up a National Sports University with the aim of opening its branches in several areas of the country. (NF)