Teachers take to YouTube for protests
Teacher trade unions have restricted their public protest campaigns due to the COVID-19 situation. However protests continued to be featured on YouTube. Here, trade Unionist Mahinda Jayasinghe takes a look at some caricatures to be featured on YouTube. Pix by M.A. Pushpakumara
Gurugedara programme to be aired on seven TV channels; Vision FM launched last week: Ed. Ministry
This week, the Cabinet of Ministers gave approval to broadcast the educational content of the Gurugedara educational TV programme on seven TV channels. They also agreed to expand the number of such channels to 20 in future. The Education Ministry is also planning on introducing these TV channels in collaboration with Sri Lanka Telecom (SLT), through PEO TV. [...]
New Bachelor of Education degree by NIE, available at 45 centres island wide
The National Institute of Education (NIE) has introduced a Bachelor of Education (Honours) degree for educational administrative officers, principals, heads of pirivenas, teachers in pirivenas, schools and educational institutes to become graduates with international professional recognition. This course is available at 45 centres throughout the country in Sinhala, Tamil and English, an Education Ministry official [...]
Minimum entry qualifications for engineering degrees at SLT campus amended
The Education Ministry issued a gazette notification amending the minimum entry qualifications to allow students with alternative qualifications to follow engineering degree courses at the SLT Campus in addition to the existing mandatory requirement of three simple passes in physical science stream at GCE Advanced Level (A/L) examinations. The gazette issued by the outgoing Education [...]
Cabinet subcommittee ends talks with teacher unions, expects to make new proposals next week
A four member Cabinet subcommittee has concluded talks with teacher trade unions on the salary issue and will make its proposals to the Cabinet next week. The trade union proposals and the Government’s position will be taken into consideration in preparing the fresh proposals, Environment Minister Mahinda Amaraweera told Education Times. The other ministers in [...]
A fruitful teacher-student interaction is the answer to educational advancement: EFSL
Education Forum Sri Lanka (EFSL) has analysed the issue over the demands made by teachers to revise salaries, and made observations and suggestions on minimising teacher-Government conflict in future. The EFSL is an independent platform that engages with experts and stakeholders from multiple sectors to catalyse policy reforms in education using evidence-based interventions. The EFSL, [...]
FAuRS 2020: A unique platform for undergraduate research
FAuRS 2020 is the symposium organised by the Faculty of Agriculture at the University of Peradeniya, and 1800 people participated this year since the symposium was held online. Usually, graduate students, faculty staff, external supervisors, invited academics, and industry personal attend FAuRS each year. However, since it was an online event about 900 participants attended [...]
Teachers’ demand for a revision of salary anomalies is justified: EFSL
Last week, the Education Forum Sri Lanka (EFSL) said the teachers’ demand for a revision of their salary anomalies was justified. It was about time the Government paid heed and rectified their salary revisions, outstanding for the last 20 years, EFSL said in a statement. It called on the Government to appoint a team of [...]