Children become sick of studies by the time they prepare for grade 5 exam: Minister

• Says the existing education pattern in the country should be changed

By Chaturanga Pradeep Samarawickrama

By the time children reach the Grade 5 Scholarship Examination, they become sick of their education, Education Minister Susil Premajayantha said.

While addressing an event yesterday, he said that there are 10 main educational skills that would help the future development of children in primary and early childhood education, but today’s children are trapped in a competitive education system where only three of those 10 skills are left by the time they reach the grade five scholarship exam.

“Aesthetic subject content skills, such as music, are gradually eluding the curriculum at this time of reaching children in grade five. Accordingly, the development of the creative section of their brains is stunted as the focus on those subjects tends to decrease,” the minister said.

Therefore, the minister said that the existing education pattern in the country should be changed. In any other developed country, the graduates are trained in the relevant subject after obtaining their degree, the minister said.  There is a need for a transformational change in the existing education system in order to overcome these challenges. It is made clearer by the need to train graduate teachers in Sri Lanka, the minister stressed.   Social attitudes should also change to build a new education system in which a good student-teacher relationship is formed in the classroom.