English medium for Arts and Commerce streams

COLOMBO: The Cabinet approved a memorandum submitted by Education Minister Susil Premajayanth to provide opportunities for students to pursue studies in the A/L Commerce and Arts streams in the English medium where teachers and other facilities are available.

The bilingual programme was started in 2002 from Grade 6 classes and continued to the A/L classes in the science and mathematics streams. The first batch sat for the A/Ls in English in 2007.

Four thousand students from 115 schools have benefited from this scheme.

A comprehensive training programme for 500 teachers in these schools in collaboration with universities in the form of weekend courses is to be arranged to facilitate this.