10th Parliament· 154 sittings on record · 30,475 speeches · latest 10 June 2026

Hon. (Dr.) Madhura Senevirathna - Deputy Minister of Education and Higher Education

Jathika Jana balawegaya· Nuwara - Eliya· 5 August 2025 ·Oral question: Oral Questions: Education, Energy, President's Fund, Western Provincial Council Vehicles, Public Security, Pirivena Education, Hospitals in Matara, Land Settlement, Coastal Patrol, and Marawila Schools

Education
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Hon. (Dr.) Madhura Senevirathna said education planning accounts for declining birth rates while reforms aim to ensure distance, poverty, and gender do not prevent children from completing 13 years of schooling. He stated that teacher salaries have seen substantial increases since 2016, including recent Budget adjustments aligned with comparable public service categories. He said the Government aims to place the Teachers’ Service among the ten better-paid public services and does not consider the current salary scale unfair.

Verbatim record (translated)

Machine-translated from Sinhala / Tamil / English

¶ 01 Hon. Speaker, on the second point first: projections consider the declining birth rate, which statistically reduces cohort sizes. Further, under inclusive education reforms, distance to school, poverty and gender should not hinder attendance; we are working to ensure all children complete 13 years of schooling, expanding inclusive education with concrete implementation within broader education reforms.

¶ 02 On salaries: observe the substantial increases since 2016, including adjustments in the last Budget. Relative increases in 2022 and earlier were aligned to parallel service classes. Our aim is to position the Teachers’ Service within the top ten better-paid public services; measures in the recent Budget advanced this. Therefore, we do not consider the current scale to be unfair to the Teachers’ Service.

Provenance

Source
Hansard, Tuesday, 5 August 2025 ·No. 1754902606038704 ·English daily/uncorrected Hansard
Page · column
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Cite as: Hon. (Dr.) Madhura Senevirathna - Deputy Minister of Education and Higher Education. 10th Parliament, Parliament of Sri Lanka. Hansard, 5 August 2025. No. 1754902606038704. Politick, https://staging.politick.io/lk/speeches/27767