The Deputy Director of National Education, who was in charge of the English module, has been sent home.

Following an investigation into the inclusion of a pornographic website address in a Grade Six English module, which was prepared for distribution to students under the new education reforms,

 Dr. Darshana Samaraweera, Deputy Director General of the English Department at the National Institute of Education (NIE), has been sent on compulsory leave effective yesterday (August 19). A senior official from the Ministry of Education confirmed this.

The official further stated that Ms. Kalani Welosa, Lecturer, and Ms. Nipuni Samarasinghe, Assistant Lecturer, both from the English Department of the National Institute of Education, have also been suspended. According to the relevant investigation report, Dr. Darshana Samaraweera was the primary officer responsible for this English module, and the error occurred due to the negligence of the other two suspended female officers.

The official further stated that investigations are still ongoing regarding Dr. Darshana Samaraweera and the other two female officers, as well as the controversial Grade Six English module. Prior to this incident, Ms. Manjula Vidanapathirana, Director General of the National Institute of Education in Maharagama, temporarily resigned from her position.

Meanwhile, the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) is conducting investigations into the incident of including a pornographic website link in the Grade Six English module, and they have taken into custody the computer data devices related to 'typing' that module from the National Institute of Education. Sources say that investigating officers are currently examining these data devices.

When we inquired from Deputy Minister of Education Dr. Madura Seneviratne regarding this incident, he stated that the investigation committee appointed under the chairmanship of former Ministry Secretary Ranjith Ariyaratne is scheduled to submit its report today or tomorrow. The Deputy Minister further added that this interim report is to be submitted to the Governing Board of the National Institute of Education.

The Deputy Minister also emphasized that appropriate disciplinary action would be taken based on the recommendations of that report once it is received. The Governing Board of the National Institute of Education acts as its disciplinary authority. The report of the investigation conducted by the Criminal Investigation Department is also expected to be submitted by next week. Following the revelation of the incident involving the inclusion of a pornographic website link in a module, its distribution to students was temporarily halted. Furthermore, Minister of Education Dr. Harini Amarasuriya (Prime Minister in Parliament) has instructed officials not to include web links in modules to be published in the future.