Education task force flawed and appropriate education bodies not represented, says CTU
View(s):The education task force appointed by the Government is flawed, as it does not represent appropriate bodies that will be able to contribute to its purpose, fruitfully, a leading education union said last week.
The Ceylon Teachers Union (CTU) said it had written to President GotabayaRajapaksa pointing out the flaws in the appointed task force.
Last month, the Government appointed the 26-member task force which comprises university representatives, heads of leading national schools, private and international schools.
It had been appointed to look into the resumption and continuation of school and university education, interrupted by the COVID-19 virus.
The CTU said the task force had failed to accommodate the National Education Commission (NEC), the National Institute of Education (NIE) and rural school representatives, who could contribute to the task force immensely. The NEC is responsible for quality education and the NIE for the curriculum in schools, the CTU said.
The examination department which is responsible for the national exams held in schools should have been represented as well, they added.
However only representatives of universities, leading Colombo schools and private schools had been invited to join, they said.Moreover, entrepreneur HarshaAlles who is in charge of a schools network had been invited to join.
“This is about free education and he has no business to be in this,” the CTU said.
They said the Government had also failed to include representatives of Tamil medium schools.
They said thiswill only make the entire exercise a sham and the Government will not achieve its objectives.