The importance of learning English was stressed by President's Secretary Lalith Weeratunga who also said that it was unfortunate that English was abandoned as a state policy leading to thousands of people losing opportunities to better jobs and a better life.
Bridging the ethnic divide with the English language. File photo shows school goers sitting for a year 5 scholarship exam |
He was speaking as chief guest at the English Language Scholarship Programme of the John Keells Social Responsibility Foundation held in Colombo last week.
He said that he reached his current position because of English language and noted that Sri Lanka should be a trilingual country with the Sinhalese learning Tamil, Tamils learning Sinhala and both learning English.
Mr Weeratunga added that Sri Lanka needs a bridge to the ethnic gap and this link could be the English Language and with this in mind the President named 2009 as the year of English and IT.
He questioned the performance of the English teachers in schools numbering 23,000 as only 20 % could obtain an ordinary pass for English in the GCE OL Examination last year. He said "We do not know whether they do justice for students".
Susantha Ratnayake, Chairman, John Keells Holdings said that under their Corporate Social Responsibility Foundation activities priority focus is on education and under it the English Language Programme is very close to their hearts.
While English Language is to become the link to bridge the ethnic divide, Mr Ratnayake was somewhat apologetic in indicating that due to logistical reasons, they were unable to bring in students from Batticaloa and Trincomalee to participate in this Scholarship Programme.
This English Language programme of JKSRF was started in 2004 to enhance English Language skills of school children and youth across the island and consequently improving their opportunities for higher learning and sustainable employment in the modern age. The programme is implemented via the Gateway Language Centres country- wide.
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