Prime Minister and Minister of Education Dr. Harini Amarasuriya told a prize-giving at St. Bernadette’s Model School, Kurunegala on Thursday that creating an environment in which every child can confidently access the opportunities of the modern world remains a government priority, Ada Derana reported.
The Prime Minister was attending the school’s annual prize-giving for the academic year 2025 as part of an education inspection tour of the Kurunegala District. She handed prizes to students recognised for outstanding subject and grade-level achievements and launched the school’s official newspaper, Adarsha Prabha.
“We want to see schools where children’s faces reflect happiness and where they are nurtured in an environment of love and care,” Amarasuriya said, according to a statement issued by the Prime Minister’s Media Division. She acknowledged the country was still emerging from a prolonged economic downturn and was simultaneously navigating global and climate-related pressures, and said challenges of that scale could only be overcome through collective effort.
Amarasuriya framed the government’s education work as broader than curriculum revisions. “This goes beyond curriculum development to a broad range of initiatives, including the strengthening of human resources and infrastructure within the education sector, thereby creating pathways for children to thrive in the new world,” she said. New subjects, digital tools and stronger teacher training were the three reform tracks she singled out.
The Kurunegala stop is the latest in a steady cadence of district-level school visits the Prime Minister has used to push her reform message in person. A day earlier she had told an event in the North Central Province that only government-approved programmes should operate in schools, part of a tightening of regulatory control over external content delivered on school premises.
After the prize-giving, the Prime Minister also visited Ridibendiella Gajanegama Maha Vidyalaya in Mahawa, where she met the academic staff and acknowledged teachers who continue to deliver quality education in challenging conditions. North Western Province Governor Tissa Warnasuriya, Deputy Minister of Agriculture and Livestock Namal Karunaratne and Kurunegala District MPs Ashoka Gunasekara and Geetha Herath were among those who attended.
