Education System
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The Open University 		  Ministry of Education    
 
The Ministry of Educations sets its Mission and Vision as follows.

Vision
Contribute to build a nation of well informed, skilled, disciplined, humane and responsible citizens.

Mission
Development and implementation of a system of education with equity and excellence imparting knowledge, skills, attitudes and values to realize one’s potential to the maximum in order to face successfully the challenges of an uncertain future in an increasingly interdependent world while preserving national identity in a pluralistic society.

The Education Publications Department functioned under the Commissioner of Publications , Examination Department under the Commissioner of Examinations and Colleges of Education Under the Chief Commissioner, Colleges of Education.

National Education Commission (NEC)
The National Education Commission (NEC), was constituted by an act of Parliament of Sri Lanka in l991. Recent reforms in primary education are based on the recommendations made by the NEC. To operationalise the recommendations a Presidential Task Force (PTF) was constituted. The PTF is headed by the Hon. Minister of Education and Higher Education. The PTF is supported by thirteen technical committees to prepare action plans for implementing reforms.

The reform proposals at all levels of education are broadly grouped under five main areas. These are: Extending Educational Opportunity; Improvement of Quality of Education; Imparting Technical and Practical Skills through Education; Teacher Education; Management of Education and Resource Provision. The reforms in primary education discussed in this article mostly fall under the broad area of improving the quality of education.

National Institute of Education (NIE)
The National Institute of Education (NIE) was established in 1986 under the provisions of the National Institute of Education Act No. 28 of 1985. NIE is responsible for providing leadership for the development of general education with quality, equity and relevance in a pluralistic society. The main purpose of creating the NIE was to establish a unique institute for capacity building of educational managers, teacher educators and teachers, design and develop school curricula and conduct policy research on education.

The NIE is a public corporation and relies on purposeful, planned and continuous public relation approaches to maintain close links with the public while developing strong external linkages in order to gain wider recognition and keep pace with contemporary global developments. Assuring quality education through a balanced curriculum for the development of productive citizens competent to face local and global demands while developing child friendly, teacher friendly schools where democracy and human values are perpetuated and sustained are among the core objectives of the NIE.

Faculties and Divisions
In the present structure, the Institute operates under the following four Faculties and two Divisions.

1. Faculty of Languages, Humanities and Social Sciences
2. Faculty of Science and Technology
3. Faculty of Education Leadership Development and Teacher Education
4. Faculty of Education for All
5. Faculty of Research, Planning and Development
6. Division of General Administration

Faculty of Languages, Humanities and Social Sciences
1. Department of Sinhala 2. Department of Tamil
3. Department of English 4. Department of Aesthetics
5. Department of Religions 6. Department of Social Sciences

Curriculum Development
The two faculties, Faculty of Languages, Humanities and Social Sciences and the Faculty of Science and Technology are responsible for curriculum development, curriculum research and evaluation in the primary, secondary and senior secondary cycles. Each faculty has separate units for different subject areas gathered according to broader categories. The two faculties would be headed by two Assistant Directors General. The functions of these two faculties will be operated by closely knit teams as there have to be interdependencies. The Primary Education Unit and the two committees - Secondary and Senior Secondary are established within the two faculties to ensure the consistent flow of curriculum delivery throughout the cycles. The Departments attached to each faculty are as follows.

Faculty of Science and Technology
1. Department of Science, Health & Physical Education 2. Department of Mathematics
3. Department of Technical Education 4. Department of Commerce
5. Department of Information Technology

Faculty of Educational Leadership Development and Teacher Education
Professional Development
The Faculty of Educational Leadership Development and Teacher Education is responsible for enhancing managerial and leadership competencies of education managers and the professional development of teacher educators and teachers.

The faculty provides specialist courses in management and leadership in education, and professional courses in teacher education. Degrees, diplomas and certificates will be awarded to educational personnel including education managers teacher educators and teachers in the government institutes as well as other private organisations - local and overseas. The Faculty consist of four departments and a foreign coutry unit. The foreign courses unit offers degrees and diplomas for foreign students.

1. Department of School Management 2. Department of Education Administration
3. Department of Teacher Empowerment 4. Department of Institutional Development
5. Foreign Courses Unit

Faculty of Education for All
The Faculty of Education for All consists of the following Departments.

1 Department of Open School 2 Department of Electronic Dissemination
3 Department of Library and Publications 4 Department of Inclusive Education

The Department of Open School proposes to offer equal educational opportunities for all those deserving. The Department of Electronic Dissemination is responsible for producing audio video materials for the benefit of the school community. The NIE library could be regarded as a national educational information centre in the country. The institute intends to develop it as a virtual library with online facilities. The Department of Inclusive Education is responsible for the introduction of the best learning practices to the system through research and experiments.

Research Planning and Development
The Faculty for Research Planning and Development has two Departments -Department of Research and Development, Department of Planning and Evaluation and the External Agencies Unit. The Faculty is headed by an Assistant Director General. The Department of Research and Development will initiate, promote, conduct and coordinate research surveys and investigations related to any aspect of the development of education. The major priority of the Department is policy research, for the purpose of meeting the objective of advising the Minister and the Ministry of Education, regarding plans, programmes and activities for the development of education in Sri Lanka. The Department of Planning and Evaluation will, in accordance with the regulations made in the act, prepare the Corporate Plan for the Institute, Annual Implementation Plan and Annual Budget. It will also monitor and evaluate the implementation of the plans in relation to the attainment of the corporate level objectives of the Institute as well as the Faculty and Divisional level objectives. The External Agencies Unit is responsible for all matters related to foreign funded projects and will coordinate with relevant local and foreign agencies. In addition, this unit will coordinate all foreign scholarships and fellowships.

Powers, Functions and Duties of NIE

To prescribe by rule, the examinations and other conditions leading to the award of degrees, diplomas and other academic distinctions of the Institute, which are recognized as teaching qualification.

To register students of affiliated colleges and teachers for the Examinations.

To hold, subject to the provisions the Act, examinations for the purposes of ascertaining the persons who have reached the standards, prescribed by rule, for the award of the degrees, diplomas and other academic distinctions.

To provide for post-graduate instructions, training and research in the several specialties of education.

To prescribe by rule, the examinations and conditions leading to the award of post-graduate degrees, diplomas and other academic distinctions of the institute.

To register personnel in the education system to follow courses of study or programmes leading to the award of the post-graduate degrees, diplomas and other academic distinctions.

To hold, subject to the provisions of the Act, examinations for the purposes of ascertaining persons who have reached the standards; prescribed by rule, for the award of the post-graduate degrees, diplomas and other academic distinctions.

To grant and confer, degrees, diplomas and other academic distinctions to, and on, persons who have passed the examinations of the Institute and fulfilled the other conditions prescribed by rule.

To recognize the examinations passed, and periods of learning or study pursued, by persons seeking admission to, or by students of, the Institute, at Universities or places of learning, having regard to the standard of such examinations and the duration of the courses of study pursued at such Universities or places of learning, and to withdraw such recognition at any time, having regard to the same considerations.

To institute Professorships and other academic posts as may be required for the purposes of the Institute;

To institute and award scholarships, medals and other prizes; and to register, with the approval of the Minister, Colleges of Education and similar institutions of teacher education as affiliated colleges and to prescribe by rule, the conditions for such registration.