Sajith warns of breakdown of educational sector

Opposition and SJB leader Sajith Premadasa said last week that the future of the country is in jeopardy since the entire student body is kept away from school owing to the government’s lack of sensitivity in managing the problems of education.

Premadasa said the situation is not at all satisfactory with many children unable access the online system that has been active during the pandemic period not receiving a balanced education.

Making a special statement in Parliament on Thursday, he said that while the rest of the world has prioritized revitalizing education, we have not even published the GCE (O/L) examination results.

All children and parents have to wait indefinitely for the GCE Advanced Level and Scholarship examinations.

“Teachers need to be physically as well as mentally prepared to start school again. International Teachers’ Day 2021 will be celebrated globally on Oct 5 under the theme ‘The Heart of the Resumption of Education is the Teacher’.

“In such a backdrop, some ministers say that teachers professional rights should be suppressed, their demands ignored and they not even permitted to press their demands.

“Due to these capricious actions, the education that was being provided through the online system has come to a complete standstill. The government’s indifference to the restoration of education in the country is casting a shadow over the future of the entire student body,’ he said.

“Does the government have a definite plan to resume school education? If so, when will the teachers, principals and zonal authorities be informed about the programme? Due to the lack of proper schooling for nearly two years, imbalances between the mental and physical development of children are inevitable,” the opposition leader said.