18% of grade six students in Sri Lanka have literacy problems

Sri Lanka Minister of Education Bandula Gunawardena points out that 18% of the students of grade six classes of government schools are observed to be having problems in basic literacy of their first language, either Sinhala or Tamil.

Participating in the opening ceremony of the 12th Colombo International Book Exhibition and Fair at Bandaranaike Memorial International Conference Hall (BMICH) this morning, Minister Gunawardena said this was revealed by a survey conducted by National Education Commission and it is a shame to the country's education standards since Sri Lanka has the highest literacy rate in the region.
The Minister emphasized that authors and writers of this country have a great task in order to overcome this situation through producing productive and standard books for the benefit of the children.
The Book Fair will be held at the BMICH from today through the 26th of September.
The organizers say there are a total of 420 stalls of local and foreign books this year. Around 120 publishing companies participate in the fair.