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Schools slide under ministry’s corruption radar with ‘donations’
Grade one school admissions for next year have been finalised, and education unions claim most of the students admitted to leading schools had been made to pay “donations” to secure their entry despite a ban on such payments.
Education Ministry Secretary Mr Anura Dissanayake conceded that the practice was taking place despite regular circulars and awareness programmes.
“We preformed an awareness programme specifically for principals and old boys last week with the participation of the Bribery Commission. We even had a video conference,” he said, adding that schoolchildren would be educated about corruption through the inclusion of a new subject about combating bribery.
Mr. Dissanayake said old boys’ and old girls’ associations and school development committees collected money for the betterment of their schools and this was not considered bribery. The money was used for school development on the grounds that the Education Ministry could not provide funds for all development activities.
“Any form of collecting money or objects at the time of admission other than the collection of funds for [specified] school development activities is illegal. Offenders will be subjected to disciplinary action,” Mr. Dissanayake said.Education unions, however, say the collection of funds for school development by old boys’ associations and school development societies often amounted to corruption and was a practice in effect sanctioned by the Education Ministry.
Ceylon Principals’ Services’ Union General Secretary Lal Chandra said that much of the bribery occurred when entering grade one students into a school and there was a growing practice of covering this up by getting the parents to deposit the money in school development or old boys’ associations bank accounts.
“We are not given enough money to maintain a school. We get donations from politicians only for political purposes and the Education Ministry has told us to collect funds through old boys’ collections or school development associations,” he said.
He said with 9,000 schools in operation the ministry had only found one principal guilty of admissions-linked bribery.Ceylon Teachers Union General Secretary Joseph Stalin said provincial ministers had turned principals into money collectors by allocating only small amounts of money for school development. The Education Ministry also gave schools little funding.
He also said bribery took place in many schools due to the appointment of corrupt principals to certain famous schools.
Ceylon Teachers’ Services Union General Secretary Mahinda Jayasinghe said the government had only given 1.5 per cent of the Budget to schools when at least 6 per cent was needed.
| Thurstan principal called to account over OBU ‘fundraising’ An audit query regarding allegations that funds were being solicited for admissions to Thurstan College, Colombo has been sent to the Education Ministry. It is alleged that the school collected money when taking students for grade one this year. It is claimed that the Thurstan College principal had ignored Education Ministry guidelines and that there had been a failure to submit documentation on admissions. According to the allegations contained in the audit query, funds collected for admissions had been deposited with the Old Boys’ Union (OBU). “Even though I am the President of the School Development Association and the Old Boys’ Union I cannot question them because they have collected funds for the past 65 years and those funds are spent on school development,” he said. “These allegations have been made by three parents,” Colonel Bandara said. The OBU was split into two factions and if one group was supported the others were unhappy. “It has been hard to please both,” the principal said. He said Education Ministry procedure had been followed correctly. One-third of the children selected to the college had also been selected for Royal College and had been given the opportunity to go that school. The vacancies were filled from the ministry list. Those in the waiting list needed to submit appeals to be reconsidered, he said. |