The Hon. (Dr.) V.S. Radhakrishnan

¶ 01 My view is: do not close schools. In plantations, schools can be 7–10 km apart. If children cannot reach school, they will drop out and return to tea plucking.

¶ 02 On dropouts: nationally, 25,823. Central Province 3,223—Nuwara Eliya 1,395; Matale 1,108. Uva 2,472—Badulla 1,647; Monaragala 927. Sabaragamuwa 3,160—Ratnapura 1,820; Kegalle 1,604. Dropouts are highest in provinces with plantation schools. Parents cannot afford schooling; principals ask for various contributions. For a family earning Rs. 1,500 a day, educating three children is very hard, leading to dropouts. Our literacy rate is 91.84%; it will fall if this continues. I can come to the Ministry to provide further details.

¶ 03 I also wish to recognize those who worked for plantation education since the introduction of sectoral programmes: Messrs. Sivasithamparam, Navaratnam, Meyyanathan, Rajagopal, Muruges, Marimuthu, L. Joseph, S. Joseph, Dharmalingam, Pandurangan, Thanaraj, Sabarajan, Gnanapragasam, Satyendra, Vijayanandan, Murali, and Viswanathan. I record their names in Hansard in gratitude.

¶ 04 Some ask what I did as State Minister of Education. I cannot list everything now, but among them: Colombo Bambalapitiya Hindu College—foundation stone laid under my watch; thank you, Minister, for seeing it through. I appreciate the Rs. 1.5 million loan scheme introduced—good measure.

¶ 05 Many youths from the plantations now excel. For example, journalist Kalavarshni Kanagaratnam from our background has been selected in Norway as a mentor for the Earth Journalism Network’s “Earth Shorts,” guiding South and Southeast Asian journalists on environmental storytelling—the first time someone from the Malaiyaha background is chosen. Congratulations. This shows education can uplift the plantations.

¶ 06 This Government has been in office just one year; we cannot blame it entirely—four fingers point back at us. Let us work together rather than only criticize. Thank you.