Treasury to fund “Nearest School is Best School”: AVK
View(s):The Ministry of Education “Nearest School is the Best School” programme that started in 2016, suffered a setback due to lack of funds last year, but the Treasury has assured it would directly fund the project this year, said Education Minister Akila Viraj Kariawasam. He said a project office consisting of engineers, technical officers, as well as coordinating officers of the MoE, would be opened at Provincial council level to advance this programme.
“We have completed 30% of this project. There are 18,500 projects under way in 9,000 schools to upgrade them,” he added. The programme includes 6,368 Sinhala medium schools, 1,543 Tamil medium schools, 828 Muslim schools and 770 Estate schools. The ongoing upgrading projects include quarters for teachers and principals, cafeterias, sports complexes, sanitary facilities, water supply and electricity.