Child Friendly Schools- a new task in Sri Lanka

Sri Lanka’s Ministry of Education, in partnership with

UNICEF, today launched the ‘Child Friendly Schools’ concept as the
official framework to address disparities in quality and access in
primary schools in Sri Lanka.

In a presentation to national, provincial and zonal education
authorities, along with other key partners, Sri Lanka’s Ministry of
Education outlined an approach which seeks to improve the quality of
education and schools for students, teachers and communities by
mainstreaming Child Friendly Schools as the national framework to
primary education. As well as the training of principals, teachers,
students and their communities, the CFS approach includes school
development.

The CFS approach is already operating in more than 1400 primary schools
in Sri Lanka. This framework seeks to take it to 10,000 primary schools
in Sri Lanka. Child Friendly Schools focus on the development of the
individual child, ensuring that all children achieve the accepted
standards of learning for primary education.

UNICEF has been working closely with the Ministry of Education to
promote the Child Friendly School (CFS) approach since 2002, investing
more than US$6 million (Rs678 million) in getting CFS up and running.
New support of US$4.5 million from the Australian Government will enable
expansion of the child friendly approach across Sri Lanka.

“We welcome the government’s commitment to the continual improvement the
quality of primary education in this country” said UNICEF’s
Representative in Sri Lanka, Philippe Duamelle. “Mainstreaming CFS as
the national approach to primary education will benefit hundreds of
thousands of children, and I am grateful for the continued support from
the Australian Government.”

Child Friendly Schools aim to be: 1. Rights-based and proactively
inclusive; 2. Gender-responsive; 3. Promote quality learning outcomes
relevant to children’s need for knowledge and skills; 4. Healthy, safe
and protective of children; 5. Actively engaged with students, families
and communities; 6. Supported by child friendly systems, policies,
practices and regulations.

Today’s launch included a special advocacy package (film, posters etc)
under the theme ‘Child Friendly Schools - We Can Make it Happen’ which
is designed to create awareness among policy makers and educationists.
The CFS package includes training manuals, brochures, leaflets and
posters which will help to increase knowledge, change attitudes and
current practices among policymakers, zonal education officers,
principles, teachers and communities. The materials will be used in a
series of training and development programmes in the provinces and
zones.