Prime Minister and Education Minister Dr Harini Amarasuriya said the government should take on part of the burden parents carry for their children’s education, speaking at the handover of a new building at Kadawalawewa Maha Vidyalaya.
A formal programme is being prepared to bring the highest-qualified and most skilled human resources into the education system, she said, in remarks reported by Hiru News.
The two-storey building handed over to students was built at a cost of about Rs. 55 million and contains eight primary classrooms.
Recruitment restarting
The Prime Minister said teacher and principal recruitment delayed for several years is being restarted, with skills and competence prioritised in selection.
That tracks a decision already moving through the ministry: B.Ed graduates, including those from private universities, were cleared for provincial school posts with interviews due before the end of 2026.
The reform case
The main aim of the reforms being implemented from this year, Amarasuriya said, is to produce citizens “full of knowledge, skills and good values” — children able to go beyond being prepared for examinations and to apply what they learn to solving social problems and creating new things.
Delivering that runs through new curricula, teacher training and school infrastructure development, she said, adding that a large investment in education transformation is expected in 2027.
The 2027 horizon matches what a parliamentary consultative committee she chairs was told this week, when it reviewed smart classrooms and the extension of the Grade 1 reforms to Grades 2 and 6.
Widening opportunities for children to develop their talents and contribute to the country’s future development is a further aim of the reforms, she said.
A note on the date
Hiru’s report is internally inconsistent on when the ceremony took place. Its Sinhala text reads ඊයේ (24) — “yesterday (24)” — in a filing published at 7.20 p.m. Colombo time on 24 October. The parenthetical day matches Saturday; the word “yesterday” points to Friday. This desk could not resolve which is correct, so no weekday is asserted above.
Corroboration: Ada Derana also filed on these remarks, under the headline “Formal procedure to recruit qualified, skilled personnel into education system: PM” (adaderana.lk/news/250471). Its pages have been returning a CloudFront block to this desk for 39 days, so no publication date could be extracted and it is not cited as a source. No other verified newsroom had filed on the handover at the time of writing.
