Education Minister admits sizeable decline in birth rate and drop in school admissions

Leader of the House and Education Minister Susil Premajayantha told Parliament yesterday that there had been a decline in the birth rate and as a result the number of admissions to Grade One classes in schools, too, was declining.

Speaking during an adjournment debate on a motion moved by SJB MP Rohini Kumari Wijeratne, the Minister said that the country’s annual birth rate which was 330,000 a few years ago has reduced to 300,000 as of now. “This will result in a decline in Grade One admissions in the near future,” he said.

The Minister added that children in Sri Lanka were moving away from schools and drawn towards tuition classes because they had lost trust in the country’s education system.

The Minister went on to say that the government had been working on filling vacancies in teacher service and the Sri Lanka Education Administration Service. “There are 40,000 vacancies for teachers in the country,” the Minister said.

Knowledgeable observers said the situation had already led to the permanent closure of many schools, especially in rural areas, directly as a result of financial incentives given to poor people to undergo vasectomies and hysterectomies, since the early eighties, in UN-sponsored family planning clinics.