The education reforms that are to begin implementation by January 2026 for students of Grades 1 and 6 have begun their drafting stage, The Sunday Morning learns.

Speaking to The Sunday Morning yesterday (7), Deputy Minister of Education and Higher Education Dr. Madhura Senevirathna said that the education reform process was continuing in a project-based manner under five pillars. 

“The curriculum aspect of the reforms are in the drafting stage. The entire reform will take place as projects under the pillars.”

The education reform process is currently ongoing under the pillars of introducing a new syllabus, developing human resources, developing infrastructure, public awareness, and assessment and evaluation.

The Deputy Minister said that under the new reforms, primary grades would have subject areas such as numericals, first language, second language, and English.

“Reducing student stress and creating a balanced individual who will continue their education as they pave a path towards a career is the direction for this reform,” he added.

Under the human resource pillar, reforms aim to update curricula in National Colleges of Education alongside developing infrastructure facilities to improve the learning environments of teacher trainees.

“The teacher education curriculum has not changed for a long time, so we will update it, improve their facilities, and make sure the students have an environment suitable for learning. This is one of the key changes we are going to make.”

The Deputy Minister further explained that the reforms in the evaluation system would put more focus on continuous school-based assessments. The reforms are also aimed at creating room for students to align with their future streams of study from Grade 10.