Cabinet Minister of Education
The 2001 General Elections saw the UNP voted into government and Dr. Kodituwakku elected to Parliament for the third time. Dr. Kodituwakku was appointed as the Cabinet Minister of Education, Cultural Affairs and Human Resource Development.
Bringing English Medium Studies to Students Through the “Bilingual Option”
His time as Minister saw sweeping and much-needed changes in the education system. Most notable was the re-introduction of the English medium in government schools after almost fifty years in which Sri Lankan students had the opportunity to learn only in their mother tongues, which had not only created barriers in communication between the Sinhalese-speaking and Tamil-speaking communities, but also closed off international opportunities for many gifted Sri Lankan students.
However, under Dr. Kodituwakku’s tenure as the Minister of Education, students were provided the bilingual option in 2002 from Year 6 onwards and it offered four subjects in the English-medium from that grade onwards, as an option, rather than a compulsory requirement, with the remaining subjects being taught in the mother tongue.
Since the abolition of English medium instruction from the public school system in 1962, this was the first such move towards strengthening English language competency in government schools and meeting the private sector’s job market demand. This was initially introduced in fifty schools and the first batch of those students sat for their Ordinary Level Examination in 2007. The Bilingual Option is now very popular throughout the country and has increased to being offered around the island in over 350 schools and to almost 100,000 students.
Taking ICT to the Schools of Sri Lanka
Another big change Dr. Kodituwakku introduced was providing Information Technology education to students throughout Sri Lanka. He strongly believes that technology is one of the most powerful educational instruments and it will ultimately be the most appropriate tool for social and economic development. Providing village schools with computer laboratories helps both the school community and the village community get a better education as well as learn new skills to earn a living wage, start a small business or select a career path in the fast developing IT/ BPO industry. Dr Kodituwakku believes that education is the only way to eradicate poverty in Sri Lanka where more than 40% of the population earn less that US $2 per day.
Due to this belief, as the Minister of Education, Dr. Kodituwakku embarked on creating an ICT road map for the school educational system. At that time, computer education was limited to a few urban schools, which were able to buy computers through donations, alumni and well-wishers. In a bid to change this situation, the program “Vishva Danuma Angili Thudata” (The Universe at Your Fingertips), was initiated in 2003.
Under this program, computers, as well as teachers proficient in IT, were provided to an initial 210 schools with the assistance of the ADB and the World Bank. Later, over 1000 school computer labs were built across Sri Lanka giving rural schools access to the latest technology and the opportunity to use the computer as a learning tool. Now this project has expanded even as far as the offering of IT as a subject in the Ordinary and Advanced Level Examinations. The IT literary rate in Sri Lanka has increased up to 25%, from having been only 5% in 2002, mainly due to this program.
Under Dr. Kodituwakku’s visionary leadership, the Ministry of Education was the first government institution networked and linked under the e-governance program. The computerization of schools at administrative level, under the education management information system (EMIS) was inaugurated under this program.
Initiatives in Policy
During Dr. Kodituwakku’s term as the Minister of Education, another much-needed change to the education system was the reintroduction of History as an independent subject.
He also initiated a program to send over 500 principals and teachers on exposure tours to the United Kingdom, Canada, USA, Australia, Malaysia and India.
A further initiative was the introduction of a program to reduce the number of school dropouts. Since most of these dropouts tend to be from Year 9 onwards with the main reason being poverty, and the necessity of children as harvesting labour, the program, “Sisusaviya,” was introduced in 2002. It arranged to provide a Rs.500 scholarship per month to these at-risk students with the assistance of the ADB. Now it has expanded to 130,000 students and has become the largest scholarship scheme in Sri Lanka.
Dr. Kodituwakku also garnered the support of the World Hunger Program to provide a midday meal to students in the most poverty-stricken districts such as Polonnaruwa and Ampara. To give the program more of a foothold within communities, it was designed to encourage community participation. The Ministry provided supplies to the schools and the parents of the students to join together to prepare the food for the students. This program continues to this day.
Another major change initiated at the time was the bringing forward of the G.C.E. A/L examination from August to April in 2002, which meant that students could enter university that same year instead of waiting until the following year, as had been the case in previous years. However this was re-adjusted in 2005 to conduct the exam in August again.
Medical Faculty
One of the final proposals Dr. Kodituwakku brought to the Cabinet in 2003was for the establishment of a medical faculty in the Eastern University. This was successful and is now fully-functioning at the Eastern University in Batticaloa. When this is taken into account, along with the establishment of the medical faculty at the University of Sri Jayawardenapura, as proposed under Dr. Kodituwakku’s tenure as Vice Chancellor there, two of Sri Lanka’s eight medical facilities have been established with the direct involvement of Dr. Kodituwakku.
New Initiatives
Dr. Kodituwakku also had two other main projects. One was the launch of a “multiple textbook option” for schools. Sri Lanka is the only country in which the Education Ministry decides on curricula, and writes, publishes and prints the textbooks. There are many complaints about the quality of these books, such as grammatical, factual and presentation lapses, and Dr. Kodituwakku took on the project of establishing a system where schools would be provided a choice of textbooks. This programme was begun in 2003, but the sudden end of teh UNP government in 2004 meant that it was later discontinued by the UPF government.
Another project close to his heart was the establishment of a counselling service for students to use foreign opportunities. There is a plethora of educational opportunities around the world and Sri Lanka has many students who could easily qualify for these and bring much-needed knowledge back home. However, most students miss these opportunities because they do not know about them. Dr. Kodituwakku wanted to establish a counselling service that would provide this information externally to interested and qualified students. However, as above, with the premature end of the UNP government in 2004, this counselling service could not be initiated.
During his time as the Minister of Education, Dr. Kodituwakku was elected as a Member of the UNESCO Executive Board for Asia and the Pacific.
