Education Minister Dr. Susil Premajayantha said that students should be directed to the future world of work with the right professional guidance.
Through the upcoming education reforms, students above grade 06 will be given the opportunity to study career guidance at school.
Minister Premajayantha expressed these views while joining the national programme held at Maharagama Madhya Maha Vidyalaya to start the vocational training course implemented by the Education Ministry to provide career guidance, English and IT skills for students who appeared for Advanced Level examination, yesterday.
The Minister said that many of the professions that exist in the world today will not be seen in the next few years, and modern career opportunities that change according to global economic needs should be created. To create modern career opportunities, the right career guidance should be provided. Accordingly, the Education Ministry has created career guidance programmes for all students who have completed their Advanced Level this year.
The Minister added that it is the responsibility of the parents to link their children who have completed the Advanced Level examination with the career guidance programmes without keeping them at home waiting for the results.
He noted that career guidance is not available at the school level in our country so far, and this course will be held in Sinhala and Tamil bilingually in nearly 300 centres covering all the 09 provinces across the island for the students who have faced this year’s Advanced Level examination. According to statistics 337,000 students have faced the Advanced Level examination this year.
The Minister stated that the upcoming education reforms will provide vocational guidance to children above grade 06 at school. According to that, the children can identify the field they have to move forward at the school level and they can choose the subject stream to be chosen in the future with their own abilities. Besides, children can have a clear understanding of all matters such as career guidance to be obtained.
The students can still get information from the Vocational Development Officer in the Divisional Secretariat of their area of residence. The principals of all the schools where the Advanced Level classes are held have also been informed in this regard. It is significant that no fee will be charged from the students to follow career guidance courses.
After the implementation of this programme, arrangements have been made to introduce this course to the students appearing for the Ordinary Level examination also, the minister noted.
It is said that the number of students who drop out of primary grades from our school system is very limited as around 99 percent of the students finish primary education. But by the time they reach the Ordinary Level, between 09 to 12 percent of them drop out of school due to various reasons. The Minister also said that it is expected that this programme will bring down the number of students who drop out of schools at Ordinary Levels.
It is expected to make necessary updates to the curriculum in the future with the assistance of the National Institute of Education (NIE) and several other institutions performing in the vocational development sector.
Dharma Sri Abeyratne