The Hon. Rishad Bathiudeen

¶ 01 Our Prime Minister, Hon. Harini Amarasuriya, is capably leading the Education Ministry—rightly entrusted to a qualified person. Reforms and syllabus changes are essential to rebuild the country. Graduates should not have to protest for government jobs; reforms must equip them to find their own paths. The private sector faces labour shortages. When I was a Minister, I saw people leaving private jobs paying LKR 200,000 to take government jobs paying LKR 20,000 because of pensions. Through reforms, we must change this mindset. Please consult Teacher Unions and proceed consensually.

¶ 02 The Kuchchaveli Pradeshiya Sabha members have requested a separate education zone for Kuchchaveli—a 504 sq. km area with many Sinhala, Tamil, and Muslim schools. I submit a written request—please take action.

¶ 03 On Vavuniya Muslim National School: An Indian-funded three-storey building is 70% complete and stalled; as a National School, the Province cannot fund it. Please complete it; the school recently produced the District First who entered Medical Faculty.

¶ 04 Regarding six school buildings started prior to my tenure and left half-done: Please allocate the remaining LKR 800 million available in the Northern Provincial allocation this year to complete those six buildings. My letter to your Secretary, Mr. Nalaka Kaluwewe, was sent a month ago; tenders are still not called, and the funds risk lapsing. Please expedite, and if insufficient, include two more schools in this year’s allocations to complete all six.

¶ 05 In war-affected Mannar, Vavuniya, Mullaitivu, many schools face acute teacher shortages, especially in Mathematics, IT, and English. National and urban schools have better teachers; remote schools suffer. Transport is a barrier: teachers and students lack reliable transport to remote schools. Please coordinate with the Transport Ministry (Hon. Bimal Rathnayake) to create a special scheme for teacher and student transport to remote schools; ad-hoc attempts have quickly lapsed.

¶ 06 Teacher deployment should be by district to reduce attrition. If a Jaffna-based teacher is posted to Mannar, they leave after a few years, perpetuating shortages. Deploy by district cadet to fill district vacancies.

¶ 07 Another issue: Private school van services in Colombo operate without coordination with any ministry or GPS tracking; fees are arbitrary. Parents with multiple children—often public servants—struggle to pay, compromising children’s nutrition. Please regulate school van services—assign responsibility to principals or another authority; during April/December school leave, operators still charge, but refuse to carry students to extra classes unless paid extra. This burden must be addressed.

¶ 08 Also, some schools appoint parent coordinators for each class and collect funds via parents, creating inequity as poor parents cannot pay. Since the Government spends substantially on education, please issue strict instructions to stop such collections and ensure equity.

¶ 09 Thank you, and I trust you will continue to uplift education standards.