A trilingual Sri Lanka vital for reconciliation

 Ridma Dissanayake

Converting Sri Lanka into a trilingual country is very important to make reconciliation work better and to implement all important decisions in the Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation Commission’s (LLRC) report, Presidential Advisor and Coordinator to the Presidential Task Force (PTF) on English and IT, Sunimal Fernando said yesterday.

“All sectors in Sri Lanka have to play vital roles to implement these decisions and to convert Sri Lanka in to a trilingual country. The education system too has a great responsibility in this effort and as heads of the Sri Lankan education sector, we promise to extend our maximum support to implement these decisions,” he added.

Fernando was addressing a workshop on ‘Teaching and Learning through the eyes of Japanese Volunteers’ jointly organised by the Presidential Initiative for a Trilingual Sri Lanka, Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA), Education Ministry, National Institute of Education (NIE) and the Bandaranaike Centre for International Studies (BCIS). It was facilitated by the S W R D Bandaranaike National Memorial Foundation.

The 10 Year National Master Plan for a Trilingual Sri Lanka has provided equal opportunities for all Sri Lankans to obtain skills in Sinhala and Tamil as languages of communication and debate with English as a life skill at levels suitable for individual needs and ambitions.

“There is no need to follow foreign experts, methods and theories to teach the English language to the Sri Lankan students.

Sri Lanka has a number of the cleverest English teachers coming from Sinhala, Tamil and Muslim families. They know the correct way to teach the English language to the students. Measures should be taken to relax the administrative rules and regulations governing teachers and officials attached to the Education sector of Sri Lanka.

It will be a great support for them to launch number of new educational programmes and obtaining best results therein, the Presidental Advisor further explained.
Education Minister Bandula Gunawardena, Education Ministry Secretary Gotabhaya Jayarathne, representatives from Japanese Embassy and number of Japanese volunteers working in Sri Lanka were also present.