The Hon. Hesha Withanage
Hon. Hesha Withanage raised concerns about inconsistent Provincial Council statutes governing pre-schools and noted that over 2,000 Early Childhood Development centres appear to be operating without registration. He questioned the adequacy of current regulation, particularly regarding the qualifications and diploma processes for pre-school administrators. He asked whether the Government plans to introduce a national-level mechanism to ensure all pre-schools/ECD centres are properly regulated and registered.
Verbatim record (translated)
Machine-translated from Sinhala / Tamil / English¶ 01 Hon. Speaker, I thank the Hon. Minister for the answers.
¶ 02 My first supplementary is this: Different Provincial Councils operate different statutes regarding pre-schools. Although you say there is national regulation, according to your answer there are about 19,000 ECD centres while only around 17,000 are registered. Thus, more than 2,000 unregistered pre-schools are operating. I believe there are major policy concerns publicized on pre-schools.
¶ 03 Regarding registration, a key factor is the assessment of the qualifications of pre-school administrators. In some places, the processes for awarding diplomas to pre-school administrators are not transparent. Although there are authorities or institutions, proper regulation does not occur. Do you have a plan to take national-level action to regulate this, and will you move from the current approach to a new process under which all pre-schools/ECD centres are properly regulated and registered?
Provenance
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- Hansard, Tuesday, 17 December 2024 ·No. 1734685396083959 ·English daily/uncorrected Hansard
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Cite as: The Hon. Hesha Withanage. 10th Parliament, Parliament of Sri Lanka. Hansard, 17 December 2024. No. 1734685396083959. Politick, https://staging.politick.io/lk/speeches/18050