Sri Lanka launches investigation over English syllabus’ gay website link

COLOMBO - Sri Lanka launched a criminal investigation on Jan 2 after a government syllabus for 11- and 12-year-olds directed pupils to a gay chat website to improve their language skills.

The Education Ministry lodged a formal complaint with the police and launched an internal inquiry to establish how the blunder took place.

“We suspect sabotage,” Education Ministry Secretary Nalaka Kaluwewe told AFP.

“We are in the process of implementing educational reforms, and this could be an attempt to stall them.”

The grade six English syllabus suggested pupils could find a pen pal to improve their language skills via buddy.net, an online chat website titled the “Bad Boys Club”, which invites users to “show your kinky side”.

Homosexual activity is illegal in Sri Lanka, and the penalty for same-sex relations is up to 10 years in prison – although there have been very few prosecutions in recent years.

Red-faced authorities ordered the Telecommunications Regulatory Commission to block access to the site on local internet providers.

Mr Kaluwewe said the 165-page English syllabus had been vetted by three separate teams, including English professors, but none had detected the error.

Officials said the page containing the referral to the chat site was removed from 400,000 copies of the syllabus before being sent to schools in time for the start of the next term on Jan 5.

There were also several spelling mistakes in the document, which its authors have admitted was prepared with the help of artificial intelligence platforms.

Efforts to decriminalise homosexuality have met strong opposition from Sri Lanka’s conservative Buddhist and Catholic clergy.

Professor Manjula Vithanapathirana, the head of the National Institute of Education, which is responsible for the syllabus, has stepped down pending the investigations. AFP