Edu. Min wants nanotech, biotech, and AI as subjects from secondary schools

Artificial Intelligence (AI) should be taught as a subject from year 10, Education Minister Susil Premajayantha said.

"Students should be able face the challenges of the 4th Industrial Revolution," he said.

Addressing an event organized for the International Teacher's Day at the Ministry, he said the country's education curriculum should be reformed in all these three sectors. " Innovation should be done in higher education as well as in the secondary sector, with related changes in the primary sector, he said.

"Subjects such as nanotechnology, biotechnology, and AI or machine learning should be included in the university subjects, and the knowledge of our children should be equal to the knowledge of children studying higher education in the developed countries of the world," he said.

He said there was a problem with the non-existence of suitable jobs to the knowledge of the children who arrive in this country with international level knowledge from abroad.

"With the consent of the professors, higher education curricula should be modernized at the university level, and secondary education. " The school level curriculum should also be modernized accordingly.

Students should be admitted to the university after 13 years," Minister Premajayantha said.

He also said that children who different abilities and different interests but score low in the face of new educational challenges could be referred to vocational training education after Grade 9.

"AI should be taught as a subject from year 10 and innovation should be done in higher education as well as in the secondary sector, with related changes in the primary sector. "New education transformation should be done in all these three sectors," he said.

The Minister added that if the education system was not updated, the country's children would not be able to reach even the fourth industrial revolution.

The 4th Industrial Revolution (4IR) is a fusion of advances in artificial intelligence (AI), robotics, the Internet of Things (IoT), genetic engineering, quantum computing, and more. Oct 27, 2020.

The Third Industrial Revolution, or Digital Revolution, began in the late 1900s and is characterized by the spread of automation and digitization through the use of electronics and computers, the invention of the Internet, and the discovery of nuclear energy.