Science proces skills are vital for the development of formal thinking ability of students for the betterment of a country. The aim of this study was to assess the level of understanding of basic science process skills (BSPS), among the grade six and seven students. The sample consisted of 3183 grade six students and 3289 grade seven students from one of the educational zones of Central Province of Sri Lanka. This sample symbolizes very rural, less privileged schools to super grade well equipped schools. A test was used to measure the level of understanding of BSPS and the research was conducted as a quantitative research.  The data were analyzed using statistical package for social sciences (SPSS). The findings of the study revealed  that the majority of the students in both grades, achieved a medium level of understanding of BSPS. However, results for both grades, indicated that there are statistically significant differences in the level of understanding of BSPS between the medium of instruction (English and native languages) as well as between national and provincial schools. In addition, gender too plays a similar role for sixth graders. Nevertheless, no relationship was identified between the understanding level of SPS and gender for seventh grades.

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