“We hope to change the Science faculty to Science and Technology by 2016, so that, these students will be able to continue their education in the universities once the BSC (TECH) degree is introduced,” Minister Gunawardena said.
The Minister at the press briefing further said "Under Mahindodaya Secondary Schools development project to upgrade 1,000 schools ., science, computer, maths and language laboratories will be set up. The government has allocated Rs. 1.5 billion for this project from which 90 schools in the Northern Province and 103 schools in Eastern Province will benefit. No other Government had spent so much funds to improve the status of schools in the country".
He said 250 Mahindodaya Tacnhnical Laboratories will be completed by end of this year. "We took necessary action to reopen 327 schools which had been closed due to various reasons in the past. There is a saying that "closing down one school paves the way to open another prison. In that case 327 prisons could be closed," the minister said.
Minister Bandula Gunawardena also said, a USD 200 million loan had been obtained from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to build Mahindodaya Laboratories and another grant of USD 13 million from Korea (KOIKA), to build a Vidyapeeta for training teachers in the field of technology.
Under Mahindodaya Secondary schools program, 146 new primary schools have been opened. Steps have been taken to teach science subjects in the Advance Level stream in 262 schools and technology subjects in 251 schools," he added.
(KH/ST)
