Rs 500 per day for 13-Year Compulsory Ed. apprentices
View(s):A Ministry of Education (MoE) proposal, for a daily travel and food allowance of Rs 500, for students following apprenticeship under the 13-Year Compulsory Education, during their training period, has been approved by the Cabinet.
This is because some students would have to pay to travel to locations away from their village, to attend the training programme, thereby bearing an additional cost.
“The objective of granting an allowance is to ensure that the programme is a success, without students dropping off midway of their training, due to the additional expenditure incurred,” said Education Minister Akila Viraj Kariyawsam said.
He said that one of the reasons for this proposal was due to a study conducted on the 1st Batch, which revealed that from the 2,300 selected for training, the number dropped to 1,400, with the main reason for dropping out being the inability to bear the additional expenses.
He said, for the 2nd Batch, there about 8,000 selected and already, they have opened accounts for 6,300 odd students, so that the money could be deposited directly to the account.
The objective of offering students an apprenticeship was to enable them become easily emploable.
Minister Kariyawasam said that, for next year’s programme, they hope to enlist about 20,000 students for the 13-Year Compulsory Education programme. The number of schools where the programme is being implemented will be increased from 150 to 650 next year.
The 13-Year Compulsory Education programme is to prevent students ending their education after sitting the GCE (O/L) examination. Even if the students fail the O/L exam, they are able to select from 26 other subjects to continue their education.
- Damith Wickreamsekara