Mahindodaya, a boon to free education - Bandula

Chaminda Perera

The government's programme to upgrade 1,000 secondary schools under the Mahindodaya school development programme will make free education system and the Central College system more meaningful, Education Minister Bandula Gunawardena said.

Minister Gunawardena said the government led by President Mahinda Rajapaksa wanted to create a well - balanced student keen on furthering studies as well as sports and skills development.

The minister was speaking at a seminar at the Sri Lanka Foundation Institute, Colombo recently. He said the Mahindodaya programme to develop 1,000 secondary schools will lay more focus on students' skills in ICT, language and other areas.

The Education Ministry expects to increase the percentage of students who qualify to study in the science stream in the GCE Advanced Level from 24 percent in 2011 to 40 percent in 2017, he said.

According to ministry statistics, only 712 out of 9,732 schools have Advanced Level science stream and 24 percent A-L students are in the science stream.