Abstract:
Twenty-first-century skills such as critical thinking,
communication, collaboration, and creativity, are widely accepted as
skills in high demand within modern working environments. National
school curricula reforms in Sri Lanka attempt to propose pedagogies
that disseminate content and design assessments to promote twentyfirst-
century skills. However, whether all stakeholders of the national
school education agree to include such skills should be investigated
before changes to curricula, policies and practices are implemented.
The purpose of this study is to survey the perceptions of the main
stakeholders of the national education system in Sri Lanka. The
perceptions of parents, and students were investigated in this study.
Seventeen (17) participants including nine (09) parents; three (03)
school students, and five (05) vocational/degree level students)
representing different social and educational backgrounds participated
in the study. A standardized, semi-structured, open-ended
questionnaire was conducted through virtual meeting mode. The
'Naturalized' transcription method was adopted in this study. Open
coding of data revealed that more than 80% of the participants
exhibited awareness of global 'good' practices and believed in the vital
need for a change of policy and/or practice within the existing system.
In addition, the participants expressed the need to improve students'
emotional and attitudinal aspects within school setups. Interestingly
some highlighted the need to consider external and control factors
affecting policy/practice changes in education.
