It is proposed to reduce the number of school grades from 13 to 12, the Ministry of Education announced while unveiling the proposed new education reforms. Accordingly, through the proposed new education reforms, every child will be allowed to complete school education in 17 years.
According to the proposed amendments, pre-school education is classified as 4 years old, primary section 1-5, junior section 6-8 and senior section 9-12.
It has been proposed to give a certain percentage of marks from school-based evaluations and a certain percentage from exams for the grade 5 scholarship exam, and the Ministry of Education has also proposed to simplify the grade 5 scholarship exam and eliminate its competition.
Through the proposed new education reforms, the Ministry of Education has proposed to conduct the G.C.E O/L examination in the 10th year and the advanced level examination in the 12th year.
Apart from that, it has been decided to reduce the number of subjects available for the G.C.E O/L examination from 9 to 7.
In those 7 subjects, it is proposed to make it compulsory to study the three new subjects of Information and Communication Technology (ICT), technical and professional skills and religious and values.
The Ministry of Education says that according to the new education reform, no child who has faced the general level examination will fail and it has been proposed to provide the opportunity for all children to study vocational training courses.
For that, A-level subjects will be classified into two categories as academic studies and professional studies and a path will be prepared for every child to obtain a degree.
The Ministry of Education points out that two new subjects have been added by increasing the existing subjects under academic studies from 6 to 8.
Also, the Ministry of Education says that the children will get the opportunity to get education through 10 subject areas under practical studies and through that, the children will get the opportunity to get degrees by going through non-degree fields.