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| Saturday, 24 January 2004 |
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President blasts UNF for ruining education by Ranil Wijayapala President Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaratunga yesterday blasted the UNF Government for paralysing "all good programmes" initiated by the PA to promote the country's education system. She said it was not for any other reason but due to "mere jealousy" towards the "good initiatives" by the PA, the present government had paralysed those programs. Addressing the official ceremony to mark the admission of children to grade one classes organised by the Western Provincial Council at Uggalboda Maha Vidyalaya, Kalutara the President said the UNF Government has no policy on education. "The biggest cut in the UNF Government's budget for 2004 is for education," the President said. She said there was no result in the discussion she had with the Prime Minister and the Education Ministry officials to remedy this situation. President Kumaratunga said the programs she initiated to provide computers to secondary schools countrywide had been paralysed for the last two years. The program to establish two well facilitated schools in each Divisional Secretariat too had been paralysed over the past two years, the President said. "After ignoring those programs for the last two years, they are re-commencing them under new names," she said. The President said if the country was to move forward with the changes in the world the younger generation of the country must be equipped with better education facilities. "We should shed political differences when dealing with the education sector," she added. "We should continue the good work initiated by any government despite our political differences." President Kumaratunga said the PA Government started education reforms in 1997 with the intention to prepare the younger generation of this country to face the challenges in a globalised world to pick the best of the new technology. "We cannot live like frogs in a well ignoring the outside world. We should move with the new trends in the world," she added. The President said the aim of the education reforms was to create awareness among the younger generation to grab the best since there were no such programs in the education system after 1978. President Kumaratunga said the vaccum in the education system to produce better citizens with moral ethics had created numerous problems to the society. "The young children resort to fighting and are addicted to drugs, due to this situation," she lamented. "If we do not tackle this problem there will be no result even though we would be able to strike a deal with Prabhakaran to bring peace to this country," she added. The President warned there will be another Prabhakaran from any part of the country if the younger generation was not provided with better education. She said under the present system the constitution did not allow her to do her bast for the education system. "If I have 20 honest ministers, 1,000 honest officials, 200,000 skilled and committed teachers and 10,000 principals I would be able to change the system," she added. President Kumaratunga initiated the admission of children to grade one of the schools in the Western Province by admitting four children to the Uggalaboda Maha Vidyalaya yesterday. Western Provincial Council Chief Minister, Reginald Cooray, former Prime Minister and Kalutara District MP, Ratnasiri Wickremanayake, Kalutara District MP, Kumara Welgama and Western Provincial Council Ministers also participated. |
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