Technology added to science,commerce, maths and arts streams for A/Ls

Dharma Sri Abeyratne

The Education Ministry will introduce a new advanced level stream as the fifth stream from this year as a collaborative measure of three Ministries, Education Minister Bandula Gunawardena said.

"Considering the present day world trends, the Technology stream will be the fifth stream," the Minister said.

"Four streams, Science, Mathematics, Commerce and Arts are taught at advanced levels at present. Every year around 350,000 students sit the advanced level examination and of them 25,000 are qualified to enter universities. Around 300,000 youths who sit the examination following the four streams enter the job market annually, eventhough, a greater number of these job seekers are unemployable, since the four streams are not job oriented.

Since these four streams are academic streams, students have to follow many other courses to obtain proficiency in various fields available in the job market.

Therefore, the technology stream will be introduced to cater to the huge demand," Minister Gunawardena said.

"At the initial stage, the new stream will be available at 50 schools and gradually expanded to cover every secretariat division. The Education Ministry is drafting the text books and teacher guidance for the new stream with the assistance of educationalists, intellectuals and several other resource personnel," the minister added.

The Education Ministry, the Higher Education Ministry and the Youth Affairs and Skills Development Ministry are the three Ministries initiating the programme.

Higher Education Minister SB Dissanayake said, more undergraduate courses will be introduced to the university system for those who follow the technology stream at advanced level. Accordingly, several new undergraduate courses are to be introduced,such as, aeronautical engineering, agro - technology, robotic and much more aiming to meet present day trends and requirements in the higher education sector and moreover in the job market.

"This initiative will open more opportunities for students to continue their studies without much burden," Minister Dissanayake added.

Meanwhile, the Youth Affairs and Skills Development Ministry will open doors for obtaining degrees in technological streams to O/L or A/L drop-outs.

Students who drop-out from O/L or A/L can follow vocational courses at technological institutions and obtain National Vocational Qualification (NVQ). They can continue this vocational training up to NVQ Level 7.

Besides, students can obtain vocational and professional training from the university colleges which are to be established in the future.

"The government will establish 20 university colleges while the private sector will establish five university colleges.

Finally, the students follow courses at university colleges can obtain degrees at special university which has to be established, "Education Ministry Monitoring MP Mohan Lal Gero said.