Educational transformation is systemic changes in the prevailing educational model. It is a worldwide accepted fact that educational transformation is a must to fine-tune or streamline the prevailing education system in any country from time to time. Distinguishing itself from the theories that defend reforms or renovations of some elements of the model, maintaining the substance of the traditional teaching and learning process, and its organisation and structure can simply be defined as educational reforms.
Aiming to arm the younger generation with quality education to face the ever advancing requirements in present-day society, the Education Ministry has taken measures to implement educational reforms promptly. Moreover, it is a timely need to introduce educational reforms to our education system focussing on producing a valuable citizen to society with multi-talents.
When concerning fruitful education methods available in the world, the education system of Finland, Japan and a few other countries are widely concerned and appreciated. It is believed that the education system in Finland is rather worth emulating by other countries since the Finnish education system caters to the requirements of modern day society.
The Finnish education system greatly helps to create a balanced person both mentally and physically. Therefore, the Sri Lankan education authorities have taken measures to seek the support of educationists in Finland for educational reforms in Sri Lanka. 
Accordingly, Sri Lankan education system is going to have a radical change by implementing educational reforms with the assistance of Finnish education specialists, Education and Higher Education Minister Dr. Susil Premajayantha said, speaking on the new educational reforms which are going to be implemented.
Under the initiative co-ordinated by the National Institute of Education (NIE), a group of Finnish educationists have already visited Sri Lanka to provide technical assistance to local educators in Sri Lanka on the new educational reforms.
The Finnish team, lead by Prof. Leena Krokfors, is a Professor at the Centre for Continuing Education (CCE) at the University of Helsinki, Finland, is in a process of evaluating the country’s present education system and looking at implementing the necessary changes.
It is significant that Finland was named as the country which had the best education system in the world in 2017.
The move to introduce new educational reforms is sponsored jointly by the Asian Development Bank (ADB) and the Japan Fund for Poverty Alleviation. Accordingly, the new educational reforms carried out in Sri Lanka with the assistance of Finnish educators to meet the educational needs of the 21st Century, will mark a new leap in the field of education, the Minister said.
“In the history, we Sri Lankans had remarkable irrigation technology, medicine, engineering technology and much more. The education system introduced to us by the British is still in operation in the country. Having slight changes from time to time, the education system is still in use. What we need now is educational reforms which suit the 21st Century. The knowledge of the child produced by this education system is excellent. Attitudes are good. But skills are the problem,” he noted.
As he highlighted, even though the subject knowledge of our students is unique and it is second to none of any student in any given country.
Schools are administered by the local authorities in Finland, which had the best education system in the world in 2017. But we have to think whether such a thing is possible in our country and therefore the Finnish education system needs to be fine-tuned so as to suit our country,” he added.
“A teacher in Finland is trained for five years. Colleges of Education are being transformed into universities to improve the quality of education. Things like teacher training and selection are done very well in that country. He added that many more job categories in the world will be lost for years to come. New job categories are being created. Unprecedented jobs are being created. Our children need to be prepared for that. We need an education that moves forward with technology,” he said.
Director General of the NIE Dr. Sunil Jayantha Navaratne said that new educational reforms are carried out under the theme ‘Education for Sustainable Development and Sustainable Peace’. It has nine themes such as pre-school education, educational administration, curriculum reform, etc.
For the first time, we hope to develop general education through six objectives aiming to create a citizen who can actively contribute to national development. The new system will create an efficient and productive employee or a skilled self-employed person, a person with a good entrepreneurial mindset, a patriotic citizen, a happy family member and so on.
“In developing an active person, who can contribute to the development of the country, we are working to shape education so that each child can contribute to the national economy according to their talents, abilities and skills. Similarly, we know of instances in the country today, where a mason or a carpenter fails to perform his duties properly. That is why education should focus on creating the most efficient and effective person, who can provide the service, which the client wants. We hope that under these new educational reforms, we will be able to inculcate an entrepreneurial mindset in children within school education”, Dr. Nawarathne added.
Accordingly, in order to create a good entrepreneur, that tendency should be given through education. That mentality needs to be inculcated in children. Similarly, a child born with a good educational background will be a patriot who loves the country.
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| It’s time to accommodate modern methods of teaching. |
“Through new reforms, we look forward to contribute to education to produce more patriotic Sri Lankans. The Education System should produce a good human being. Even if the citizen is a doctor or an engineer, if he or she is not a good human being, such an education system will not benefit the country,” he noted.
The next step is to create a happy family member through education. Many children today are a little or less tolerant. The less patience there is, the harder it is to live happily in the family unit. It is needed to redefine this education system concerning the needs of the 21st Century, as we are now in the Fourth Industrial Revolution.
The change in the existing education system, which has become the wish of the majority of the people, should be done through the process of revolutionary education transformation. In the midst of other global problems and challenges, the necessity of making the transformational change in education was explained. The transformation should not be limited to personnel transfer but should be a practical one starting from the administrative structure with changes at the level we can afford and it should be carried out continuously during other educational activities such as holding ordinary level, advanced level etc. exams.
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