Officials should deal with public humanely – PM

Prime Minister Dr. Harini Amarasuriya said that policies should be formulated and decisions should be made based on data that is in the best interest of schoolchildren, and that officials should deal with the public humanely as a group providing public services.

Education, Higher Education and Vocational Education Minister , Prime Minister Dr. Harini Amarasuriya stated this while participating in a workshop held at the Colombo Foundation Institute on ‘Preparing relevant strategies to transform the existing education system’ on Wednesday (11).

Based on the points included in the new Government’s policy statement, many important issues needed to bring about a new transformation in the educational stages from early childhood development to higher education and vocational education were discussed here.

The Prime Minister also said: “We must understand that education is a transformative thing. Beyond acquiring knowledge, there must be an individual transformation as well as a social transformation as a collective. We must have an education system that can build that transformation. We must be able to see that children have opportunities to open up to the world. We must feel a sense of social responsibility. We must not only develop personally, but also as a society. We must feel that we must have social responsibility for that. Knowledge and skills must also be acquired through it. Education is not a commodity. We have turned education into a transaction. The culture that considers education as a transaction must be changed.

We do not invest in education expecting results in a week or two. This is a long-term investment that the Government is making. The Education Ministry and the institutions under it should become the place where policy decisions regarding education are made. Those policies and decisions should be made based on data. Decisions cannot be made based on personal opinions or feelings. We need a system to collect data and maintain data.

Officers should have empathy. We see that people who come expecting a service are crying. There are allegations that officers do not listen, do not speak properly, do not answer when a question is raised, and have been idle for years. The Prime Minister further stated that steps should be taken to stop this system.”

Education Deputy Minister Dr. Madura Seneviratne, Education Ministry Secretary Nalaka Kaluwewa and a group of professionals participated in this event.

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