DailyMirror
Capital expenditure granted to Education sector had been slashed by 42 percent in the last three years, causing a collapse in the entire education system, the Democratic National Alliance (DNA) said in parliament yesterday.
DNA parliamentary group leader Anura Kumara Dissanayake said that capital expenditure in the national budget for Education in 2007 was Rs. 8 billion. However in 2008 this was reduced to Rs.5.2 billion and in 2009 to Rs.4.6 billion, the MP noted.
“Capital expenditure has been slashed by 42 percent in the last three years. How can the education sector be developed by cutting funds,” Mr. Dissanayake asked, seconding an adjournment motion on Education in the House.
The MP added that the funds allocated for Education from the National budget in 2009 was just 2.1 percent of Gross Domestic Production (GD).
“According to UNICEF, the world standard for education allocations must be at least 6 percent of the GDP” the MP noted.
However, since 2004 this figure has been lower than 3 percent of GDP in Sri Lanka, Mr.Dissanayake said.
“Since 1997, a total of 948 schools have closed in the country,” Mr.Dissanayake said.
Taken as an average, this would amount to 79 schools closing down annually from 1977 to 2009, he said. ” Since 1997 six schools have closed every month. One school has closed down every six days” the MP stressed.
In 1977 thee were 10,358 schools island wide and this has dropped to 9410 in 2009 he said.
However, the MP noted that 2345 schools have less than 10 students and there are 121 schools with just one student, Mr. Dissanayake said.
“A total 3470 schools have less than ten teachers. Successive governments have crated a shortage of teachers. One third of all schools have less than ten teachers,” the MP said.
Presenting more statistics, the MP said that 11 percent of schools had no library facilities, 641 had no telephones and 93 percent had no internet facilities. Twenty four percent of schools have no electricity. How can we create an educated future generation in this context? Mr. Dissanayake asked.
It was in such a context that the government now slashing funds for education, Mr.Dissanayake noted.He added that last year’s O’ level results highlighted the plight of students. More than 17,000 students failed all subjects at the O’ level exam, and 48 percent failed the exam. Only 37 percent passed English while 49 percent failed Maths, he said.
Quoting a statement by former Education Minister Susil Premajayantha in the House, Mr.Dissanayake said that 36 of the best schools of the country receives 100,000 applications for Grade I admission. However, these 36 top schools have only vacancies for 6000 admissions leaving out the remaining 94,000.Commenting on the plight of Universities, Mr. Dissanayake said that the Physics department of the Peradeniya University had changed its syllabus only once in the last 50 years. He said although Sabaragamuwa University had 2500 under graduates, only 750 had hostel facilities.
Mr. Dissanayake asked Higher Education Minister S.B. Dissanayake to address the problem of National Universities without talking of opening Private Universities.