PM asks schools to stop collecting money for smartboards
View(s):Schools have been issued strict instructions not to collect money from parents of students for the purchase of smartboards, Prime Minister and Education Minister Dr Harini Amarasuriya said.
In response to a question by Opposition Leader Sajith Premadasa in parliament on Thursday, the PM said the government had commenced distributing 1,500 smartboards to schools this year. The Education Ministry has issued circulars not to collect money from parents to purchase smartboards. There is no need to collect any money for smartboards given that the government has already taken steps to provide smartboards to all secondary schools, she said. She called on schools to stop collecting money for purchasing smartboards in instances where such a process had been initiated.
She also refuted accusations made by the opposition leader that the government was curtailing free education.
Mr Premadasa claimed there was information that the government was considering closing the Dental Faculty of the Sri Jayewardenepura University and the Faculty of Graduate Studies at the Gampaha Wickramarachchi University of Indigenous Medicine.
The PM said there were no plans to close the Sri Jayewardenepura University’s Dental Faculty. A report, meanwhile, has already been tabled in parliament regarding the problems that had arisen for students owing to various post-graduate programmes being started at the Wickramarachchi University’s Faculty of Graduate Studies without any proper planning. “We are taking steps to rectify these issues while taking the side of the students,” she added. The PM noted that these steps were being taken in line with recommendations made by a committee appointed by the University Grants Commission (UGC). (SJ)
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