Sri Lankan president emphasizes importance of learning Chinese

COLOMBO, Aug. 17 (Xinhua) -- Sri Lankan President Ranil Wickremesinghe emphasized the importance of learning Chinese along with English for school children, the President's Media Division (PMD) said on Thursday.

The PMD said the president made such remarks while addressing the annual prize awarding of a leading school called "Anula Vidyalaya" in Colombo on Wednesday.

"Schools and higher education institutions must be established as centers of knowledge dissemination in these fields. Consequently, our strategy encompasses the establishment of non-state universities alongside state institutions," said the president.

A scheme akin to the subsidized loan systems abroad has been devised to enable students to pursue education in non-government universities without financial constraints interrupting their academic pursuits, he added.