The Hon. Roshan Akmeemana

¶ 01 Thank you, Hon. Presiding Member.

¶ 02 Today, under Head 126 of the Ministry of Education, Higher Education and Vocational Education, we are effectively debating the architecture of our future society—how our society should be designed. Education is the engine that determines a nation’s knowledge. I urge even the Opposition to maintain a spirit of cooperation. Our system still bears 19th-century features and has many blind spots while we speak of creativity, critical thinking and modernity. We have now commenced a transformative process to make the education system more equitable and contemporary, and we invite the Opposition’s support. We set aside 2025 for economic stabilization; in 2026 we intend to accelerate strategic reforms, including in education.

¶ 03 Let me respond to a few Opposition points. On allocating 6 percent of GDP to education: many groups including university academics, student movements and civil society fought for this—not only the NPP. Even the SJB’s predecessors joined those struggles at the time. We too strongly hold to this goal. But to allocate 4–6 percent of GDP to education, Government revenue must be around 25–30 percent of GDP. What revenue level did we inherit? It had been driven down to around 8.3 percent of GDP. With revenue at 8.3 percent and demands to allocate 6 percent to education, there is a contradiction. Our approach is to grow the economy, raise revenue as a share of GDP—our target is 16 percent by year-end—and thereby sustainably increase education spending. As a first step, this year we raised education to 2.04 percent of GDP—the largest in recent times as a starting point for 2026. We are moving toward the long-term 6 percent goal.

¶ 04 On VAT on school supplies: yes, we said we would remove it. IMF conditions and revenue targets limited reductions. Instead, we adopted alternative relief—last and this Budget provided Rs. 6,000 per child for school books/bags to 1.6 million low-income families, scaled by number of children; Rs. 4,000 shoe vouchers for small schools; menstrual hygiene support for all adolescent girls; and an additional Rs. 5,000 for children with disabilities. Removing 18 percent VAT would reduce a Rs. 5,000 book bill by about Rs. 750; our direct grants provide greater relief.

¶ 05 Global evidence, including from the G20 Extraordinary Committee of Independent Experts on Global Inequality (with economists like Joseph Stiglitz and Jayati Ghosh), supports direct cash transfers to low-income households as effective measures. We have been implementing such measures since last year.

¶ 06 On teacher shortages: about 30,000 vacancies exist nationally; around 5,000 in the Eastern Province and about 2,000 in my district, especially in Maths and Science. Recruitment was delayed by court cases; we spent much of last year resolving them. Now, by early next year, we can recruit around 25,000 teachers, easing shortages.

¶ 07 Thank you to all Members who joined the debate on the Ministry’s Head.