School admissions:

Bribery Commission, Education Ministry officials meet

Chamikara Weerasinghe

The Commission to Investigate Allegations of Bribery and Corruption will meet Education Ministry officials to discuss circulars on school admission criteria issued by the Education Ministry to curb illegal charges levied on children's admissions and bribes taken from their parents.

Bribery Commission sources said of the complaints of bribery and corruption it receives, over 60 percent are school-related.

“In most cases they have been committed in the guise of following the ministry’s school admission regulations, usually charging huge amounts of money from parents for the School Development Fund,” the sources said.

The Commission decided to discuss the matters with the Education Ministry following the increased number of complaints it gets from the public.

One can expect at least 15 complaints of the nature where school principals have allegedly solicited and accepted money from parents as part of the school admission criteria of the Education Ministry, the sources said.

The Commission will first try to cover those loopholes that help those who practise corruption at all levels in the education sector, the sources said.

On being asked about their stance and the action that the Education Ministry has taken to prevent the practice of levying illegal sums on children’s school admissions by Principals, an Education Ministry official said the subject was beyond their scope, and it was handled solely by the ministry’s Permanent Secretary.

The Permanent Secretary was not available for comment in spite of our repeated attempts to contact him. He was at a meeting, we were told.

Education Minister Bandula Gunawardena was not available for comment as he was out of the country.

Bribery Commission sources said they will deploy Bribery Commission officers to investigate the situation at schools.

“We will arrest those principals and their collaborators at all levels, who take illegal sums from parents in the guise of taking money for school development activities for building construction projects,” they said.

‘These projects are often non-existent.

They often use this ruse to ‘auction out” school places to higher bidders, they said.

“The Bribery Commission will investigate the matters that are already under its purview being the complaints filed against those who have accepted money from them.

There are about 300 such complaints,” the sources added.