1. KEY OBJECTIVES………………………………………………………………..

…2

2. STRUCTURE……………………………………………………………………….....3

2.1. LEVEL OF EDUCATION………………………………………….…………4

2.1.1 Primary education………………………………………………..……..4

2.1.2 Middle education…………………………………………………...……4

2.1.3 Secondary education……………………………………………………4

2.1.4 Post-Secondary education………………………………………….…..4

2.1.5 Vocational education………………………………………………..…..5

2.1.6 Tertiary education ……………………………………………….….….5

2.2. CURRICULUM………………………………………………………………..5

2.3. TEACHING METHODOLOGY AND STRATEGIES………………..……7

2.4. EXAMINATION SYSTEM………………………………………….…..……7

2.5. ASSESSMENT METHOD………………………………………………..…..8

2.6. EVALUATION METHOD……………………………………….…………..12

2.7. TEACHER EDUCATION…………………………………………………….13

REFERENCES…………………………………...……………………………...………….14

1
1. KEY OBJECTIVES:

Sri Lanka‟s educational objectives can be summarized as follows:

a. To develop and understand the cultural and religious heritage and the democratic traditions

of the country, as well as an appreciation of the contributions made by the different ethnic

groups to the national culture.

b. To develop a basic understanding of the environment and skills relevant to the needs of life

and society.

c. To cultivate an appreciation of the arts, literature and science.

d. To develop attitudes conducive to harmonious relations among the different ethnic groups.

e. To promote moral, spiritual and physical development.

f. To inculcate a sense of commitment to national development.

g. To develop and promote a system for the acquisition of technical knowledge and vocational

skills to meet the manpower needs of the country.

h. To promote lifelong education and knowledge renewal through programmes of formal and

non-formal education.

i. To promote the democratization of education (Ydo , 1995)

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2. STRUCTURE

2.1. LEVEL OF EDUCATION

Sri Lanka's education structure is divided into five parts: primary, junior secondary, senior

secondary, collegiate, and tertiary. Primary education lasts five years (Grade 1 to Grade 5) and at

the end of this period, the students may elect to write a national exam called the Scholarship

exam. This exam allows students with exceptional skills to move on to better schools. After

primary education, the junior secondary level (referred to as middle school in some schools) lasts

for 4 years (Grades 6-9) followed by 2 years (Grades 10-11) of the senior secondary level which

is the preparation for the General Certificate of Education (G.C.E) Ordinary Level (O/Ls).

According to the Sri Lankan law, it is compulsory that all children go to school till grade 9 (age

3
14) at which point they can choose to continue their education or drop out and engage in

apprenticeship for a job or farming. However, the Ministry of Education strongly advises all

students to continue with their studies at least till the G.C.E Ordinary Level. Students who are

pursuing tertiary education must pass the G.C.E O/Ls in order to enter the collegiate level to

study for another 2 years (grades 12-13) to sit for the G.C.E Advanced Level. On successful

completion of this exam, students can move on to tertiary education, there for the GCE A/Ls is

the university entrance exam in Sri Lanka.

2.1.1. Primary Education

School education in Sri Lanka is compulsory through to age 14, when students may disengage in

favor of an apprenticeship or job. The first 5 years are spent in primary school. At the end of this

there is an optional scholarship examination that may permit access to a superior grade of school.

2.1.2. Middle Education

Four years of middle school follow to complete the compulsory education phase. The curriculum

comprises pre-determined academic subjects with little or no choice allowed.

2.1.3. Secondary Education

Grades 10 and 11 prepare secondary school students who wish to attempt their GCE O-Levels.

However they must continue at collegiate levels for a similar period, and complete their A-

Levels too, if they wish to subsequently enter university to study further.

2.1.4. Post-Secondary Education:

Post-secondary qualifications are qualifications typically studied for after successful completion

of secondary school. In Sri Lanka, this is usually after successful completion of the General

4
Certificate of Education. A variety of different post-secondary qualifications are offered in Sri

Lanka.

2.1.5. Vocational Education

The state provides a number of vocational and technical training centers, and programs for

apprenticeship training too. These take place within a system of seven levels of qualifications, of

which the upper one is rated equivalent to degree level.

2.1.6. Tertiary Education

There are a variety of tertiary academic institutions where programs may be followed that range

from one-year certificates through to doctorates. The most venerable of these is the University of

Colombo, which is also the largest institution on the island and is illustrated here.

It was established in 1921 in affiliation with the University of London. Today its students study

in independent faculties that include medicine, science, law, education, arts, management &

finance, graduate studies, and computing ( Morawski, 2008).

2.2.CURRICULUM

The Sri Lankan national curriculum is divided into five parts – Primary, Junior Secondary,

Senior Secondary, Collegiate and Tertiary.

Primary education lasts for 5 to 6 years (Grades 1-5), Junior/Secondary lasts for 4 years (Grades

6-9) and Senior Secondary lasts for 2 years (Grades 10 and 11) in preparation for the GCE O-

Levels. Students must pass GCE O-Levels to enter the collegiate level and study for another 2

years (Grades 12 and 13) to sit for GCE A-Levels, which is the university entrance examination.

It is optional for students to sit for the scholarship examination during the final year of Primary

5
School (Grade 5) and based on the marks of this extremely competitive examination the students

may get an opportunity to get transferred to a prominent national school.

The Sri Lankan GCE O-Level and A-Level examinations are conducted by the Department of

Examinations. It is based on the British O-Level and A-Level qualifications, respectively. The O-

Level examination is a qualification in its own right but more often taken as a pre-requisite for

the more in-depth and academically rigorous A-Levels. It is taken by students at the end of the

Senior Secondary School or by non-school external candidates. The A-Level examination is

taken by school candidates at the end of Collegiate Level or by non-school external candidates.

This qualification is used as an entrance examination for Sri Lanka national universities.

There are 4 major fields of study at Collegiate Level and students should study for 2 years at this

level before taking the examination.

a. Physical Science (Combined Maths, Physics and Chemistry)

b. Biological Science (Biology, Physics, Chemistry)

c. Commerce and Accounting

d. Arts

In each stream, students should face a minimum of 3 subjects. Additionally, there is a General

English Test and Common General Test. The results of the General English Test are not taken in

to consideration for the University Entrance selection criteria, but students are required to obtain

a pass mark for the Common General Test ( Bandara , 1971).

6
2.3.TEACHING METHODOLOGY AND STRATEGIES

The study found that only 42% of the teacher trainers know about activity based teaching.

Therefore, it was obvious that 58% of the sample have a narrow view of activity-based learning

methods. 77% disagreed that they had skills on using activity-based teaching methods. It was

revealed that 72% of sample was of the view that they have difficulties in the classroom to use

activity-based teaching methods and also, 72.3% of the sample agreed that many teachers in

schools do not use activity-based teaching methods.

It could be concluded that many primary teachers in Sri Lankan schools do not use activity-based

teaching methods in schools. However, 87% of the sample agreed that activity-based teaching

methods can give students a sense of participation and collaborative learning. Also, 84.4% of the

teacher trainees agreed to use activity-based teaching methods as these are helpful in improving

classroom interaction. This outcome is very encouraging as it will help in improving the activity-

based teaching and learning process of primary mathematics in schools.

Alongside the traditional forms of teaching – lectures, demonstrations and examinations based

on lectures and literature – instruction makes increasing use of other methods, such as essays,

projects, seminar and group work. The use of new information technologies in instruction has

also increased. The aim has been to increase students‟ independent and self-motivated study (

Eriyagama, 2018).

2.4.EXAMINATION SYSTEM

the students may elect to write a national exam called the Scholarship exam. This exam allows

students with exceptional skills to move on to better schools. After primary education, the junior

secondary level (referred to as middle school in some schools) lasts for 4 years (Grades 6-9)

7
followed by 2 years (Grades 10-11) of the senior secondary level which is the preparation for the

General Certificate of Education (G.C.E) Ordinary Level (O/Ls). According to the Sri Lankan

law, it is compulsory that all children go to school till grade 9 (age 14) at which point they can

choose to continue their education or drop out and engage in apprenticeship for a job or farming.

However, the Ministry of Education strongly advises all students to continue with their studies at

least till the G.C.E Ordinary Level. Students who are pursuing tertiary education must pass the

G.C.E O/Ls in order to enter the collegiate level to study for another 2 years (grades 12-13) to sit

for the G.C.E Advanced Level. On successful completion of this exam, students can move on to

tertiary education, there for the GCE A/Ls is the university entrance exam in Sri Lanka ( Bidani.,

2019)

2.5.ASSESSMENT METHOD

2.5.1. Paper pencil tests

The most common assessment practice followed by the teachers in schools is paper pencil tests.

The word assessment does not exist in the teacher vocabulary and they use the word „test‟. A

recent study (Bandara, 2014) of three schools in Mawanella in the Kegalle District indicates that

teachers in Grade XI Science classes rarely use formative assessment but rather concentrate more

on note giving and test questions. This is very common even in a school in the Gampaha

education zone. The team observed the lessons in Grade XIII and Grade XI classes (exam-bound

classes). It was taking down notes and answers to questions, which are very much examination

oriented. The Buddhism teacher of one school in Gampaha was repeatedly referring to the

examinations, the topics and the short answers. There was no questioning of students to see

whether they understood the subject, but they were being asked to take down notes or answers

for possible questions. However, in the same school the primary school teacher of Grade-five

8
was exceptionally good and she was the type of teacher the schools should have as she was so

effectively using formative assessments and also effectively distributed the learning for every

student to learn it. She was also achieving the examination objectives but naturally, not coaching

for the scholarship examination. One of the observed teachers in the Gampaha education zone

started the lesson in grade 10, saying that for the public examination there will be a question on

the topic. Then she showed several past questions and coached how to write the answers for

those questions rather than teaching. It was found that not only this particular teacher, but also

the emphasis of other teachers was to coach students for the public examination. Similar

observations were made in the schools in Galle, Badulla and Bandarawela education zones.

Exploring Malaysian schools, Lim (2009) states that this type of teaching is, “Drill and practice”

and teachers do it as it is the most common and expedient way to cover the heavy load of

content, but as a result students find learning boring and meaningless. Sedere (2009) reports that

the efforts taken to bring public examinations in Sri Lanka to international standards were not

successful. This was further proven by the interviews and field visits done in this study

2.5.2. Home work assignments

Very frequently homework assignments are given. These assignments are mostly paper pencil

question and answer type assignments. Rarely does a teacher give an assignment to assess skills

and affective qualities of a student. Sometimes the teacher himself/herself marks the assignment

and these are mostly paper-pencil type home work. Most of the times, the common….. Practice

is that students or his or her friend marks the assignment when the teacher discusses the answers.

Term tests

9
In Sri Lankan Schools at the end of every school term, a paper-pencil type term-test is given. The

tests are collectively prepared test papers by subject teachers or sometimes a test paper given by

the division/zone. Then each subject teacher who teaches in the class marks the paper using a

marking scheme prepared by the subject teacher, or the division/zone. Usually only the term test

paper marks are reported in the report cards. However, teachers rarely follow the listed learning

outcomes given in the Teacher Instructional Manuals (TIMs). Except in Aesthetic subjects, the

term test too is a paper-pencil test. Term Tests have a long history and highly accepted by

parents and teachers because it provides an assessment of the student every three months. This if

employed correctly is a powerful feed-back mechanism for learning. This could be well utilized

as a School-Based Assessment system. Despite SBA providing a better assessment scheme

linked to teaching learning, centrally devised and produced Term Tests were given very high

priority from about 2006. The Term Tests and the marking process take several weeks out of the

time available for teaching-learning. It is usual to see children out-of-school during school hours

and loafing about because the teachers are employed in marking papers. The adverse effects of

these highly regarded Term Tests need to be taken note of. The entire Term Test scheme being

summative, and content loaded, negates the purpose of having SBA to support formative

assessment linked to teaching-learning.

2.5.3. Preferences in assessment

The Bandara (2014) study also presented 23 different types of assessment a teacher could use in

classroom teaching. Students indicated that the most common was the tests, and 90% of the time

the teachers used tests in Grade XI science classes. The short written test is the one over 90%

indicated as the most common practice of assessment by the teachers. It is a positive thing to

observe that 70% have indicated Group work and Practical tests as the 2nd and 3rd most

10
common practices. All other listed assessment methods, selected 23 from the SBA Guidelines

provided in 2008 by MoE, received less than 30% and a few such as speech, presentations,

projects received less than 20% rating. This was also observed as the same in the FGD which

were conducted in Kandy and Kegalle by the PGIS MSc students.

2.5.4. Assessment of projects

The GCE A-L examination has made project work mandatory. Also the GCE A-L examination

Grade Card reports a grade for the project on a 4-point scale. Although it is mandatory, no one

takes account of the project grades for the awarding of the AL certificate. The Commissioner

General of Examinations also indicated that the Department of Examinations has no faith in the

project grade, but they process the examination results. It is well known to all that the projects of

the GCE A-L students are not genuinely done by the student. Often these project reports are

made by others, and even there are cases where one can get it done for a fee. Therefore, at

present these valuable approaches to student learning assessment are all mismanaged, misused

and undervalued in the process.

2.5.5. Assessment of skills

Assessment of practical skills is in practice in several aesthetic subjects such as Music, Dancing,

Singing and Drawing/Art. Although there are many similar subjects where the skills can be

assessed such as Agriculture, Commerce and Science subjects, these are rarely assessed. Though

the GCE A-L science subjects require laboratory assessments for School-Based Grades, these are

never seriously done. However, there are schools where many types of assessments are done in

the implementation of SBA. Such schools are exceptions and not the norm (Sedere , 2016).

11
2.6 EVALUATION METHOD

The effectiveness of the teaching learning process can be measured and judged by evaluation.

Therefore, evaluation is very important to the students as well as to the teachers. By Educational

Reforms of 1998, School Based Assessment (SBA) was introduced to the school system in Sri

Lanka. At present it has been implemented from grade 6 to grade 13 in all the government

schools in Sri Lanka. Inclusion of SBA Grades in the certificate commenced in 2002 for GCE

(O/L) and in 2005 for GCE (A/L). Overall aim of SBA is to improve the quality of learning,

teaching and assessment. The aims of the study were to; Identify the teachers‟ and students‟

attitudes towards SBA, Find out the assessment tools that are used in SBA, Investigate the

problems faced by the teachers and the students in using SBA tools The study was limited to four

Educational Zones in Colombo district: twelve Schools were selected randomly to represent

1AB, 1C and type 2 schools. Twenty students from Grade 11 and two teachers were selected

from each school. Total student sample was two hundred and forty. Attitude tests and short

questionnaires were used to collect data. Approximately 21 assessment tools were identified as

used under SBA. When considering the school type, high positive attitude on SBA can be seen in

1C schools students. Various problems were identified related to the assessment tools. Among

them, the main problem was the lack of physical resources in type 2 schools. The conclusion of

the study is that teachers should pay more attention to use student centered assessment methods.

Steps should be taken to improve the validity of SBA marks. There should be a very close

relationship among teachers to minimize the difficulties faced by the students because of the

many assessments at any given time ( C., 2011).

12
2.7 TEACHER EDUCATION

Teachers are either trained at 19 national Colleges of Education overseen by the National

Institute of Education (NIE) or in Bachelor of Education programs at Sri Lanka‟s public

universities. Elementary and lower-secondary school teachers must hold a Trained Teachers

Certificate, which is a three-year program that is typically entered on the basis of A-Levels, and

comprises of two years of class room instruction and one year of in-service teaching.

Teaching in upper secondary schools requires a Bachelor of Education degree, respectively a

Diploma of Education or Postgraduate Diploma in Education, a credential earned upon

completion of a one-year graduate program following a bachelor‟s degree in another discipline

(Moore, 2017).

13
REFERENCES

Bandara , G. (1971). National Curriculum. Retrieved from Royal Institute International

School: https://royalinstitute.org/curriculum-national/

Bidani., B. (2019, Julyy 22). School enrollment in South Asia. Retrieved from SARMD:

https://worldbank.github.io/SARMD_guidelines/school-enrollment-in-south-asia-

note-school.html

C., N. (2011). evaluation of School Based Assessment . Retrieved from Research &

Publication : http://archive.cmb.ac.lk:8080/research/handle/70130/2284

Eriyagama, S. (2018, June). Teaching Methodology. Retrieved from World Voice Nexus:

https://www.worldcces.org/article-3-by-eriyagama/use-of-activity-based-teaching-

methods-to-create-peaceful-learning-in-primary-mathematics-classrooms

Morawski, A. (2008). Education System in Sri lanka. Retrieved from Scholaro Pro:

https://www.scholaro.com/pro/Countries/Sri-Lanka/Education-System

Glavin, C. (2004, November). Primary and Secondary Education. Retrieved from K12

academics:

https://www.k12academics.com/Education%20Worldwide/Education%20in%20Sri

%20Lanka/primary-secondary-education

Moore, T. (2017, August 16). Education in Sri lanka. Retrieved from Wes.Wenr:

https://wenr.wes.org/2017/08/education-in-sri-lanka

Sedere , D. U. (2016). STUDY ON EVALUATION &. STUDY ON EVALUATION & THE

ASSESSMNETS SYSTEM IN GENERAL EDUCATION IN SRI LANKA, 13-16.

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Ydo , M. (1995, August). Principles and general objectives of education. Retrieved from

ibe.unesco:

http://www.ibe.unesco.org/fileadmin/user_upload/archive/Countries/WDE/2006/ASI

A_and_the_PACIFIC/Sri_Lanka/Sri_Lanka.

15