Hereafter ... 5th scholarship only to underprivileged --- circular released

Hereafter ... 5th scholarship only to underprivileged --- circular released

Minister of education,Akila Viraj Kariyawasam has taken steps to abolish the circular bearing No. 1995/16 which had made the 5th grade scholarship compulsory for all students of government schools and instead he has informed that a new circular has been introduced with the number 08/20/2019 and that it is not compulsory to sit for the fifth grade scholarship examination. He has further informed that in future this examination

would be held for the purpose of an experiment on an annual basis in order to provide afford aid to clever children of families below earnings of their income limit and to select students for grade six in schools and that children of the privileged class could appear for this examination in future. Students who pass are charged facilities plus service charges and school development society charges approved by the said circular and have been exempted totally from being charged financial support or any other contribution. If school children of schools being maintained on a primary level fail to pass the scholarship, providing them with other schools come under the purview of zonal education offices and carried out by them, it was informed.

It was further notified that a file should be maintained on a school level as to whether one's is to sit for the scholarship exam. The circular further prohibits posters, banners promoting the scholarship examination. Minister Akila Viraj Kariyawasam emphasises that it is the opinion of experts on Psychology and educationists that student-diversification and anomalies of intelligence have been neglected by deviating from the basic objective of education across the scholarship examination and thus has created an artificial and unnecessary competition which in turn has resulted in a negative effect on the minds of small children. 

The minister goes on to say that in most instances more than children of underprivileged families and children of families who warrant scholarships ... students of leading national schools are trapped in a mist of great pressure where the scholarship is concerned and the students are classified as children who passed the scholarship exam and those who failed, thus creating a "division" which then subjects small children to a mental conflict and that it is detrimental to development of their humanistic qualities too. Whatever it is, only alternative decisions have been forwarded for year 5 scholarship and as President Maithripala Sirisena informs, action to abolish has still not come into force as such.