The minister expressed these ideas while participating in the function held at the S. De S. Jayasingha College, Dehiwala to celebrate the World Children’s Day.

A great responsibility lies with the parents with regard to protect the rights of children, protection of children and to show the correct path to them and for this purpose a special national level interference is necessary, the minister mentioned. When we look at the education systems in many developed countries, there are no situations of worrying children with difficult examinations. Therefore a committee has been appointed in the ministry of education to decide whether the grade five scholarship examination should continue further or not. The committee will deeply study into the matters such as whether the objective of the grade five scholarship examination is to provide bursaries for further education, to provide opportunity to enter another school and is it reasonable to hold an examination for these requirements. According to the recommendations of the committee a decision will be taken about the continuation of the scholarship examination, the minister further stated at this occasion.

Measures will be taken to provide a 13 year continuous school education to all the children in the country starting from 2018, said the minister and he also revealed that even for the children who failed in some subjects at the ordinary level examination, twenty four new subjects have been introduced for them to select according to their competencies to study in advanced level.

Accordingly, the steps will be taken to get money allocated from this budget to admit about one hundred and twenty thousand more children to the school system to study in the advanced level, the minister stated.

Further expressing his ideas the minister said that it is the responsibility of present day parents to show the correct path for their children to develop positive, independent and good attitudes during their childhood.