The Colombo Additional Magistrate Dulanjalie Amarasinghe will tomorrow hear the case in connection with the controversial sex-education handbook circulated among 11-year-olds at the Colombo International School (CIS).
On Friday the police handed over to courts a full report compiled by the Ministry of Education which had investigated the issue after a complaint in this regard was made by a parent to the National Child Protection Authority (NCPA).
Friday’s report was the fourth to be presented to courts since investigations began some five weeks ago, after the parent, D. Dodangoda instituted legal action against the use of the book at the CIS.
Earlier reports compiled by the former NCPA head Dr. Jagath Wellawatte, Tissa Hewavitharana, Commissioner for Teacher Education and Dr. Priyanjali de Soysa, a senior lecturer at the University of Colombo, were also handed over to the same court.
The book - Introducing Moral values - by Joe Jenkins and circulated among Grade Six students contains explicit sex material that includes sketches of contraceptives and describes love-making among other adult material.
The complaint also prompted the Education Ministry and the NCPA to hold different investigations into the book and they later sought legal advice on the course of action to be taken against the CIS.
NCPA chairperson Anoma Dissanayake said she was horrified at the material in the handbook, saying it should never have been included in a Grade Six syllabus.
Education Secretary Sunil. S. Sirisena hit out at the book adding that attempts were now underway to have a closer scrutiny not only at the CIS but all the international schools operating in the country.
“For decades these ‘up market’ educational institutes have had a free run, but now is the time to rope them in and towards this end the authorities are to set up a monitoring committee sometime next month,” he added.
Mr. Dodangoda a former UNP MP and journalist took legal action after he failed in his attempts to persuade the CIS authorities to have the book dropped from the curriculum.
The school authorities have defended the book saying it was important to educate the children on sex issues so that they will be better prepared for the future and have refused to take it out from the curriculum. |
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