Special emphasis to improve English speaking among schoolchildren
Rasika Somarathna in Hambantota
President Mahinda Rajapaksa Sunday said the Government has laid
special emphasis on improving English speaking among school children,
encouraging extra curricular activities and making them aware on future
employment avenues and job oriented skills.
President Rajapaksa addressing a gathering following the opening of a
new auditorium for Middeniya Maha Vidyalaya in the Hambantota district,
emphasized that children are the most prized asset of the nation. He
said the Government’s main aim was to empower the future generation with
knowledge, skills and morale attitudes, for them to face the future with
confidence.
President Rajapaksa also stressed on the need to alleviate the fear
of speaking English from the Sri Lankan mindset.
He noted the Presidential initiative ‘English as l’ to help children
improve their spoken language skills.
Children should also be encouraged to engage in extra curricular
activities to showcase their inherent abilities and teachers should make
them aware on future employment avenues and job oriented skills training
available, he added.
While noting that only around two percent of school children were
being admitted to Universities at present, President Rajapaksa said the
Government was looking at possibilities on increasing these numbers.
He added that the Government was also looking at promoting and making
children aware on the vast scope of other livelihood avenues available
to them.
He said he had instructed authorities to initiate language labs at
school level. Improvement of facilities throughout the island was also
highlighted with the President claiming that the efforts were paying
rich dividends. The emergence of the highest placed student to enter the
medical faculty this year from Hambantota was testimony to the emerging
trends, he added.
It was also noted that the new auditorium, a long felt need of
Middeniya Maha Vidyalaya became a reality primarily due to the efforts
of an old boy of the School, Sirisena Amarasekera, Secretary to the
Prime Minister, in whose name the hall is named after.
Amarasekera also addressed the gathering.
The President also opened the Samadhi Buddha statute at Sri
Punyawardhanaramaya in Julampitiya built in memory of the President’s
father, veteran politician D.A.Rajapaksa.
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