Sri Lanka investigates textbook case instructing students to access gay websites

“We suspect sabotage,” said Sri Lankan Ministry of Education official Nalaka Kaluwewe. “We are in the process of reforming education and this could be an attempt to cause stagnation.”

The statement was made by Mr. Kaluwewe when Sri Lankan authorities on January 2 opened a criminal investigation into a scandal related to English textbooks for 6th grade students, i.e. 11-12 years old. This document suggests that students can find friends to improve their language skills by visiting an online gay chat site.

Homosexuality is illegal in Sri Lanka and violators can face up to 10 years in prison, although there have been few prosecutions in recent years. Efforts to decriminalize homosexuality currently face strong opposition from conservative Buddhist and Catholic clergy in the country.

Sri Lankan authorities ordered the Telecommunications Regulatory Commission to block access to the above website.

Mr. Kaluwewe said the 165-page textbook was evaluated by three different teams, including English language professors, but no one found any errors. Pages containing links to gay websites were removed from 400,000 printed copies, before they were sent to schools for the new term.

In addition, the document also contains some spelling errors. The editorial team admitted to writing the book with the help of artificial intelligence tools.

Sri Lanka’s Ministry of Education has filed a complaint with the police and opened an internal investigation to clarify the cause of the error. Manjula Vithanapathirana, head of the National Institute of Educational Research, the agency responsible for textbooks, resigned while the investigation took place.