Laptops, Tabs to GCE AL students cancelled: Ed.Min.
View(s):A proposal by the United National Party (UNP) government to offer Tabs and Laptops to GCE Advanced Level students free of charge, will be dropped by the new Government, said Minister of Education & Higher Education Wijeyadasa Rajapakshe.
He said Rs 5 billion had been allocated by the government. He believes it is “unnecessary” to spend that money on Laptops and Tabs and instead, the funds could be used to develop schools and for new projects similar to those carried out the previous Mahinda Rajapaksa government.
Minister Rajapakshe who was the Higher Education Minister in the UNP government, was sworn into the same portfolio this week, with the addition of Education.
He said, “In using such funds for a project like giving Laptops and Tabs to students, they should be careful, as there was no guarantee the equipment will not be misused, as there are no measures to prevent students from doing so.”
He said that, in countries like the US, there was a background where they could offer such facilities, but in Sri Lanka we have not developed to such a situation. “We cannot afford to waste funds,” he said. Former Education Minister Akila Viraj Kariywasam said that stopping the proposal was a disadvantage to about 500,000 students who may have benefited.
He said the Technological studies of students will suffer a setback, if such projects are halted, adding that, in a government where the UNP has a majority, they would re-launch such a project for the benefit of the students. The proposal made by the UNP was a pledge in their election manifesto of 2015. He said the ‘Suraksha’ insurance scheme was one of the successful plans launched by the UNP government.
- Damith Wickremasekara