Investigate misuse of funds allocated for printing textbooks- CTU to Govt.
View(s):The Ceylon Teachers Union (CTU) last week called on the Government to investigate the misuse of funds allocated for the printing of school textbooks.
The 2018 Audit Report reveals that a sum of Rs. 3,499.25 million allocated for the printing of 419 categories of textbooks containing 39,714 pages, for 4.3 million schoolchildren, was not used appropriately, as there had been a shortfall of 10,545 books in 11 schools across the country, with the Ministry of Education (MoE) having to spend an additional Rs 5.72 million in 2019, for English work books, writing books and textbooks for 27,275 Grade 3 students, sans Procurement Committee approval.
Meanwhile, in 2018, the MoE obtained a refund of Rs. 6.13 million from the the Government and private printers for supplying books of substandard quality, and textbooks from inferior quality paper, for 2019.
The CTU said that, in the last 3 years, the MoE, because of its inability to determine the quantity of books needed in schools, has resorted to printing extra books. These books, including teacher’s handbooks, printed in excess, are lying in the stores and deteriorating, for want of proper storage facilities. – CC