First consignment of school text books sent to Jaffna

Dharma Sri ABEYRATNE

COLOMBO: School textbooks will soon be transported to Jaffna by road in the near future, Education Minister Susil Premajayantha said.

The Minister was addressing the official ceremony held yesterday at the Bandaranaike Jetty to send school textbooks to Jaffna for the 2009 academic year.

The Education Ministry has taken steps to send school texbooks to Jaffna by sea. At the ceremony the Minister handed over a consignment of textbooks to the officer in charge of Mercs Ruhuna which will transport the books.

Under the first phase of the programme 614,974 textbooks will be sent to Jaffna.

These books will be distributed among schools from 14 regional educational offices in the Jaffna peninsula.

The total textbook requirement of Jaffna is 842,326. Under the second phase of the books distribution programme, the balance 227,352 books will be sent on October 15.

“The Government is spending Rs. 2,750 million for the printing and distribution process for 2009.

“The Ministry had taken measures to make corrections since it was reported that there were some mistakes in the textbooks which were distributed last year. For the next year 374 titles of books will be printed,” the Minister said.

He said the Education Ministry would complete the book distribution by December 5 so that students would receive their textbooks before the commencement of the school vacation.

Books for Mannar, Kilinochchi and Mullaitivu have already been dispatched by lorries.

Minister of Social Services and Social Welfare Douglas Devananda thanked the Government for sending the text books to Jaffna in time.