English as a Subject in Primary Education

Primary Education

Students enter school education at the age of six. They enter grade 1 after completing one or two years of elementary education. According to our government rules, we have an opportunity to have learning facilities free. 

This primary education was not compulsory to have for children until 1999. But after that, the Sri Lankan government established a new rule, that every child must be entered into primary education as a part of the reform program. According to that every child aged 5 -10  must go through grades 1-5 to complete primary education.

The curriculum for the first three years of primary education includes religion and mother language and it could be Sinhala or Tamil, English, and numbers for mathematics. In grade four the same subjects are continued and added more subjects like physical education, and environmental studies. These subjects will be the same for government schools and also for international schools even if they are not conducting the same syllabus.

According to the government syllabus, every student has an opportunity to learn about English as a secondary language. The students are learning the basics of the English language from this age. So using Activities based education is a very effective teaching method for primary students. Because they already using and learning another language which is mostly used in their day-to-day life. So learning another language might be difficult for them if the teachers' education is limited to books. The teachers have to use effective and interactive methods to improve basic skills in the English language.