Additional US$ 5M from the World Bank for higher educational programmes
View(s):Additional funding for higher educational programmes in Sri Lanka has been pledged by the World Bank. Accordingly US$ five million has been pledged, in addition to US$ 25 million provided by the World Bank earlier.
The World Bank’s Human Development Practice Leader for the Maldives, Nepal and Sri Lanka Rene Antonio Leon met with Education Minister Dinesh Gunawardena at Isurupaya in Battaramulla this week.
Harsha Athurupane, lead economist and task team leader for the education projects was also present.
The Minister praised the World Bank for its assistance so far, and in turn the representatives assured that more assistance would be given.
The representatives also said that assistance could also follow in the direction of teacher training as the Minister emphasised the need for assistance in Information Technology and language training, especially in the form of English training programmes to train professionals.
The representatives also said that some schools have a fairly large student population and others lack space, and these schools need to be given attention.
The Minster also briefed the delegation about the drawbacks the local education sector is facing due to COVID-19. He said the Education Ministry is making plans, to cover the syllabus within a specific period, to make up for lost time. He also said university enrolment would be increased by another 10,000 undergraduate students for the next academic year.