Plans to make SL Asia's knowledge hub

"President Mahinda Rajapaksa has focused his attention on uplifting education in Sri Lanka and aims to make it the knowledge hub in Asia.

"This will make Sri Lanka the Wonder of Asia, said Social Services Minister Felix Perera.

He said so at the annual sports meet of Nivandagama Jinaraja Maha Vidyalaya recently.

There are only 300 National Schools out of 9,000 schools in the island. All others are Provincial council schools.

Rs 33,000 million has been allocated from the budget for education. Every provincial council spends nearly Rs 20,000 million for education.

The government spends about Rs 50,000 million for education.

The minister said computer literacy among Sri Lankans is 30 percent even though literacy rate is 96 percent.

"If we want Sri Lanka to be the Wonder of Asia, we should accelerate the percentage of computer literacy up to 60 percent.

Otherwise, we will not be able to compete with developed countries, the minister said