Education reforms and the privilege gap

The education reforms which have been presented by the National People's Power (NPP) Government has eclipsed everything in politics in the country, with Opposition parties demanding the resignation of Prime Minister Dr. Harini Amarasuriya who is also the Minister of Education.

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However, except for the allegation that the Education Ministry has not discussed the reforms with the stakeholders, other allegations against the ministry and the minister seem to be either trivial or irrelevant or just imaginations which could have largely averted through proper discussions. Playing politics with anything by the Opposition parties has to be expected as the NPP too did so prior to its ascension to power.

A few months ago, it was alleged that the new reforms trivialised the importance of subjects of history and aesthetic subjects in the curriculum, by making them not compulsory for the students. However, it seems to have been rectified or the allegation has been without a basis. Some people point out spelling mistakes in text books which cannot be ignored as these books are distributed among children who have to learn to write in proper language. Yet, that was not a part of the reforms and this problem has been in practice for a long time.