President emphasizes stress-free education

Students being distanced from arts, sports:

President Mahinda Rajapaksa yesterday stressed the need for compiling textbooks in a manner that would evoke the interest of students.

"Today children are increasingly being distanced from pursuits such as arts and sports because they are being imprisoned by weighty subjects which they are unable to cope with. This has also subjected them to undue mental pressure and even diseases such as diabetes," he said.

President Rajapaksa made these observations at a discussion relating to the subject matter of textbooks and school syllabuses for students from Grade 6 to 13 at Temple Trees.

The President said during daily visits of schoolchildren to Temple Trees, certain students inquire from him about the material in their school text books.

The President showed officials the relevant portions of these texts. He said adopting simple methods in teaching subjects would greatly ease the tension and pressure on students' minds.

He also stressed the need of equipping students with subjects such as computer knowledge. Education Minister Bandula Gunawardena said that the Parliamentary Consultative Committee to discuss problems relating to schools textbooks and syllabuses met under his chairmanship over 25 times where the opinions and inputs of over 1,000 persons including religious leaders, professors and scholars were obtained.

He said medical specialists had also expressed their opinion on the psychological impact on students who have to deal with question papers that cause immense pressure to the student's mind and hence attention has been paid to the damaging consequences that could be caused to students.

The best example of this was the year 5 scholarship examination, the minister said.