The Hon. (Mrs.) Rohini Kumari Wijerathna

¶ 01 Hon. State Minister Mahinda Jayasinghe, if you claim there is no two-thirds anomaly, why did you lead teachers into struggle then? I don’t know whether teachers now tell you there is no anomaly. If so, good.

¶ 02 Next, capital expenditure is most important within education spending. In some years, Ministries receive less than 50% of allocated capital; less than 40% for projects. Please focus on this.

¶ 03 Now, on appointment of Vice-Chancellors. The Opposition Leader and others spoke of Ruhuna University. I won’t detail it, but similar things occur at Rajarata, Eastern and South Eastern Universities—selecting a familiar person after elections instead of from the interviewed three shortlisted prior to polls. This is not suitable under your watch. I saw a sensitive note by Prof. Samanta Kumara to a friend, saying, “…like me, you too will be compelled to be disheartened within this political system.” He states he was sidelined to appoint those friendly to the JVP.

¶ 04 On fake certificates—a big issue now. I think the largest group to have presented fake certificates to contest elections is here. I table the article by Senior Prof. L.P. Jayatissa in the Daily FT of 5 March titled “Fake Journal Publications: Silent Fraud in University Systems Costing Billions to Taxpayers.”