Road signs only in national languages: PM

• Says school divisions along religious and ethnic lines will be done away with in two years
  
   

Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe yesterday said the Government will work to establish a common education system without religious divisions and instructed that all road signs be in only Sinhala, Tamil and English. 

Speaking at Temple Trees Wickremesinghe said that since the 1970s Sri Lanka has deviated from the practice of having national schools where children of all religions and ethnicities studied together. However, the Government would work to turn this around and in the next two years have a school system where students of different religions and ethnicities study together. The Prime Minister said the two years will give previously segregated schools the chance to adapt to the unified framework.    

“The Government will establish a new public school system that is not based on language or religion within the next two years. All religious education institutes will be regulated under the purview of the Ministry of Education. It has been already decided with the concurrence of the Muslim ministers and the MPs that Muslim religious education institutes be monitored by the Muslim Education Institute Regulation Board which is to be established under the purview of the Education Ministry.”

The Prime Minister has also instructed Home Affairs, Local Government and Provincial Councils Minister Wajira Abeywardena to ensure all streets in Sri Lanka are only named using the Sinhala, Tamil or English languages. No other language can be used, a statement from the Government Information Department said.