The Hon. Nalin Hewage
Hon. Nalin Hewage said the Government intends to strengthen schools close to children’s homes to reduce long-distance travel, citing cases of students travelling 60-70 km for education. He stated that around Rs. 1,700 crore has been allocated to state education over the last two Budgets and that these funds will be used to develop village schools with adequate physical and human resources. He also noted plans to consolidate or merge schools where appropriate to create a stronger local school system.
Verbatim record (translated)
Machine-translated from Sinhala / Tamil / English¶ 01 Though not directly linked to your first question, I will answer because it is important. We intend to provide schools very close to children because currently some travel 60-70 km, even from Elpitiya to Colombo, which affects their future. We discussed this during the election. Like in Japan, we aim to have good schools nearby.
¶ 02 We are upgrading certain schools so children can study well close to home. Over the last two Budgets, about Rs. 1,700 crore have been allocated to state education. In a short time, we will use these resources to develop village schools. Without adequate physical and human resources, just sending a child to a village school is not enough. We are also working on consolidating and merging schools where appropriate to build a strong system near their homes.
Provenance
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- Hansard, Thursday, 21 May 2026 ·No. 23621 ·English daily/uncorrected Hansard
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/lk/speeches/7303
Cite as: The Hon. Nalin Hewage. 10th Parliament, Parliament of Sri Lanka. Hansard, 21 May 2026. No. 23621. Politick, https://staging.politick.io/lk/speeches/7303