School development project failure:JVP

The JVP today cited the project for the development of 1,000 secondary schools as a total failure and therefore urged the government to abrogate the programme immediately.

Addressing a press conference, JVP parliamentary group leader Anura Kumara Dissanayake said that though the government claimed that 1,000 schools had been selected for upgrading under this project as modern secondary schools, the modalities adopted in this regard were not known to anyone. 

Mr. Dissanayake asked whether the population density, geographical conditions and ethnic diversity in areas concerned were the modalities specified for the selection of schools.

“We know none of these factors have been considered. Schools have been selected on recommendations by politicians. There are two fundamental questions arising from this project. There are 9,800 schools in the country, and 1,000 of them will be developed under the project covering as secondary schools covering three to five primary schools. Then, around 5,000 schools will be covered totally. What will happen to the rest of the schools? Will they be closed down?” he asked.

Also, he argued that the government would run short of funds to develop these schools as only US$350 million out of the total estimated cost of US$600 million.

“The government has no plan to find the remaining US$250 million. This school project is going be a failure,” he opined.

However, Education Minister Bandula Gunawardane said that all the schools were selected after a scientific mapping exercise, and therefore, nobody could dispute the criterion adopted.  Altogether, he said that 6,000 school would be developed.

“There are 1,552 schools with less than 50 students each. A separate programme will be launched by the Presidential Secretariat and will be implemented together with the provincial councils. We will not close down any school,” he said.

Commenting on the funding requirements, he said that this was a project to be implemented within a period of four years starting from this year, and therefore, no such problem would arise.

“This is a successful project. The JVP knows that it is politically disadvantageous to them,” he said. (Kelum Bandara)