The Hon. Hesha Withanage Ankumbura Arachchi
Hon. Hesha Withanage Ankumbura Arachchi criticized the Government’s handling of proposed education reforms, alleging they were advanced for political purposes rather than children’s needs and without adequate consultation with the Sectoral Oversight Committee on Education. He said prior committee processes could have identified issues such as the “Grade 6 error,” and urged the Government not to mislead the public. He stated that the Opposition would support further work in the committee to develop non-partisan education policy.
Verbatim record (translated)
Machine-translated from Sinhala / Tamil / English¶ 01 I will conclude quickly.
¶ 02 When Hon. Radhakrishnan chaired the Sectoral Oversight Committee on Education, not a single signature was offered to bring those reforms. So do not now say this is being done in goodwill. You have brought this forward, but not for children’s needs—for your own political ends. Had you at least informed the Sectoral Oversight Committee, we could have flagged this Grade 6 error.
¶ 03 Finally, do not mislead the public who came with great hope to take the country on the right path. We will, in the Sectoral Oversight Committee, help take the next steps with goodwill. We have no malice. Let us build correct, non-partisan policy for the country’s education; let the Government know the Opposition will be there.
¶ 04 Thank you.
Provenance
- Source
- Hansard, Thursday, 22 January 2026 ·No. 23203 ·English daily/uncorrected Hansard
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- not yet extracted — page/column anchors are not in the current dataset; the source PDF is the citable location.
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Cite as: The Hon. Hesha Withanage Ankumbura Arachchi. 10th Parliament, Parliament of Sri Lanka. Hansard, 22 January 2026. No. 23203. Politick, https://staging.politick.io/lk/speeches/22482