Encouraging more schools to commence General Certificate of Education (A/L) Science in English medium

During the last three decades English was taught as a second language in all schools. But the standard of English has declined to a very law level. One of the probable reasons for this may be the limited time for students' use of English. Introduction of the English medium for selected subjects has given more time about 20 to 25 periods per week for the students to use in English.

When the programme was introduced in 2001 sixty-nine schools joined this programme but the number of schools had declined to 54 in 2004. This may be due to non-availability of suitable books and the inadequacy of the teacher-training programme. It may also be because children and parents might be fearing whether answering the examination papers in English is difficult and hence they may not be able to compete with the children studying in the mother tongue.

Analysis of the results of the G.C.E. (A/L) examination in 2004 clearly show that the results in the English medium are better than the Sinhala or Tamil media in Chemistry, Physics, and Biology as shown in the table below, Performance in Combined Mathematics is highest in tamil medium.

It is expected that when this information is made available to pupils and parents the enrolment will improve. In addition plans are being made to provide better facilities for both teachers and pupils in the rural schools.

This too might lead to improvement in the enrolment of pupils in the G.C.E. (A/L) English medium classes, states an Education Ministry press release issued yesterday.

The Ministry of Education is already taking action to:

* Improve and expand Teacher training in English Medium, Science subjects for O/L and A/L.

* Materials (software, audio-video, cassettes, books/ journals) will be provide to all school libraries and to teachers undergoing training.

* Adequate number of science teachers will be provided to all senior schools before 31st May.

* Science Labs upgrading, development and expansion is already under way.

The rapid expansion of knowledge and research in Science and Technology globally, makes it imperative for our students to keep abreast of cutting edge.

Competency in English has become indispensable to keep up with modern day scientific advancements. The Ministry effort to upgrade learning science in English is based on these requirements.