Abstract:
Teaching statistics has not been an easy task in comparison with other disciplines. This
is the common complain made by most of the teachers at all levels who teach statistics
in Sri Lanka. Though the situation is such, it seems that no concrete steps have been
taken to change the acute situation. Therefore, the objective of this paper is to analyze
the prevailing difficulties in statistics education in Sri Lanka and to find feasible solutions
to improve the situation to a higher level. As the entire statistics education is a broad
one, and the preliminary statistics education has a direct impact on other levels of
statistics education, in this paper the attention is given to discuss the preliminary
statistics education in Sri Lanka. The initial attempt is to discuss and analyze the
ongoing statistics education system in Sri Lanka. Those colonial methods of teaching
that does not improve the level of the statistics education are also identified. The next
step is to identify some strategies that are affordable as well as feasible. The aim of
these new strategies is to create active teaching and active learning participation which
cannot be seen in the colonial statistics education system. Non-technological strategies
and new technological strategies are discussed and suitable arrangements are made to
alter those technological strategies to suit Sri Lankan education system. Among the new
technological strategies, an attention is given to introduce web media, multimedia and
other techniques such as computer animations in this teaching process. In addition to
those solutions, it is also suggested to eliminate the language barrier which is a one of
the main obstacle to improve the level of statistics education in Sri Lanka.
