"5 scholarship exam to be stopped in another 2 years; after that, an exam for class 8" -- President

"5 scholarship exam to be stopped in another 2 years; after that, an exam for class 8" -- President

A further explanation was made by President Maithripala Sirisena regarding the statement he made previously referring that he will be withdrawing grade five scholarship. 

The President attended a function held today (5) at Kadawatha, Maha Maya Balika Vidyalaya and on that occasion what he mentioned was that Education Ministry has informed that the said scholarship cannot be withdrawn and that if it is to be done, an alternative has to be introduced in respect of that
and that it will be after an extensive discussion. That already students are preparing for the scholarship examination and that removing them from the exam will make some impact on them. 

President Maithripala Sirisena stated that the decision to abolish grade 5 scholarship examination in order to introduce a better education system to children and that 86 percent of children entering universities have failed the scholarship examination and that therefore a shortcoming has been detected in that method. Thus the President exclaimed that an examination will be introduced to grade 8 after a relevant elaborate study carried out and that the 5 year scholarship will be abolished in another 2 years or so. 

Accordingly, the President further mentioned that the examination introduced will be an examination to be carried out with the motive of admitting schoolchildren to popular schools as such but to lay the foundation to a subjectwise and employment-based education and that students will be selected on subjects such as Technology, Medicine, Business Education and Literature. He added that the schooling-system where Royal, Ananda, Visakha are supposed to be of the elite category will be changed and that that there are a large number in those schools and that there are no schools with seven, eight thousand in any other countries around the world; thereby bringing down the ceiling on a maximum of thousand.