The Ministries of Education and Sports and Youth Affairs hope to commence the admission of students to sports schools from Grade 8. The aim is to produce outstanding athletes at the school level who can win internationally, the Ministry of Education states in a media release.

It states: The admission of students to sports schools is started from grade 8 and the students who have special abilities and dedication for sports and have reached the expected achievement level are enrolled in sports schools after selecting through an interview.

So far 25 sport schools have been established representing all the districts in the island and this circular has been issued according to the decisions taken at a special meeting held recently for the purpose of discussing the future activities for development of those schools with the participation of Minister of Education G.L. Pieris, Minister of Sports and Youth Affairs Namal Rajapaksa and all principals of sports schools.

The Ministry of Education has issued a circular containing the instructions for all provincial and zonal education authorities and the principals of sports schools how to implement the activities related to the development of the sports schools including admission of students, administration and the financial matters with the coordination of both education and sports ministries.

The main objective for establishing these sports schools is to create a suitable environment for providing a proper sports education while taking the sports achievement level of students to a higher level and to create excellent sport persons with the ability to become international champions through the sports school system of this country.

Instructions have been given through this circular to start a separate class in Grade 8 as a solution to the problem of maximum number of students that has already taken to Grade 6 from the students who passed the Grade 5 scholarship examination and no vacancies are available in those classes.

Furthermore, the future developmental work of these sports schools will be launched with the assistance of tri-forces and with the coordination of the Ministry of Education and the Ministry of Sports for the priority needs such as human resource development, physical resource development, modernization and development of existing playgrounds, renovation of hostels and providing necessary resources of these schools.