Funday Times

International Schools and how they are regarded in society
By Wasundara Jayawardana
International schools are the schools that teach in the English medium and have their learning pattern according to international and local syllabuses. Today these schools are found in each and every important city in Sri Lanka. But these schools are always regarded second to government schools.

The scholarship exam in Grade Five is not conducted in these schools. There are only a few good and well experienced teachers. It is very difficult for these schools to enter competitions with other government schools.

Many people say that the students of these schools are indisciplined and westernised children. But children will not be indisciplined if their home environment is good. Children will develop good virtues if they are sent to dhamma school. Indisciplined children are not always the fault of the school.

Ten percent of school-going children attend private schools. This is a great help to the government as the money to be spent for schools will be saved.
English is the most needed language to get a good job and to be internationally recognized. Students of these schools get to learn internationally approved books, which give them a wide range of knowledge, and they get a good knowledge of English.

As the private schools don't form societies with the government schools, some of these schools have got together and formed a society named Association for International Schools in Sri Lanka (AISSL). This society conducts various activities for private schools. It conducts an exam named IPSCE (International Primary Schools Certificate Examination). Students of Grade Six participate in this exam which is held instead of the Scholarship exam in government schools.

It organised another exam named IJSCE (International Junior Schools Certificate Examination) for Grade Nine students. This time, these exams are conducted in the third week of January, 2006. The AISSL also organises sports-meets and competitions between the schools where students can show their talents.

When a parent tries to admit his/her child to a private school many people advice them to admit them to a better government school. Why do they do this? This is because the government does not sponsor these schools. This is a great disadvantage.

But nowadays, little by little the schools are coming up to the level of government schools, they are competing with government schools and gaining victories and the government is beginning to sponsor these schools. If these developing schools get sponsored by the government and get all the facilities needed, they can even be among the best schools in the country.

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