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by L. B. Wijayasiri in Kandy

Central Provincial Chief Minister Sarath Ekanayake said that they had got assistance from several donor countries and had received 27 million US Dollars from donor countries to develop education in the Plantation sector.

In addition Assistant Indian High Commissioner in Kandy and Provincial Minister of Tamil Education too had initiated a number of programmes to improve education in that sector.

But unfortunately they had failed to do something tangible for want of teachers.

Under the constitutional requirements children of 5 to 14 years age group should be sent to schools compulsorily.

Donor countries had provided 27 million US Dollars to improve informal education in that sector. But they were helpless due to the lack of teachers the educationist.

Chief Minister Sarath Ekanayake said so at the inauguration of a workshop on educational issues of the plantation sector of the Central Province organised by Provincial Ministry of Industries, Sports, Estate Infrastructure, Rural Development and Education (Tamil) in association with Citizens' Welfare Development Foundation's Plantation Forum and the Assistant Indian High Commissioner in Kandy. The event took place at the Auditorium of the Assistant Indian HC office Kandy.

Chief Minister Ekanayake added that last year they wanted to recruit 900 teachers to plantation sector schools but they were short of 400.

When graduate teachers were appointed they made attempts to recruit some but failed. What they were urgently in need was to draw up effective planning to recruit qualified teachers to schools in the plantation areas.

He expected from those educational experts, intellectuals, academics and public officials participating in the workshop to make workable suggestions after deliberations to solve that problem and fulfil the expectations envisaged in "Mahinda Chinthana".

Provincial Minister of Industries Sports, Estate Infrastructure and Tamil Education S. Arulsamy said that unlike some political leaders in the plantation sector, he was not prepared to take arbitrary decisions and take decisions of his own.

President Mahinda Rajapakse, the Chief Minister and the Indian High Commissioner were prepared to help improve the education in the plantation sector.

He would appreciate workable and effective suggestions from the participants of that workshop so that he could take suitable steps to implement them.

Assistant Indian High Commissioner Kandy Dr. B. R. Raja Pillai, Secretary to the Minister of Tourism Dr. P. Ramanujam, Secretary to the Provincial Ministry , Shirani Weerakoon, President of the Citizens' Welfare Development Foundation's Plantation Forum Deenadayalu also addressed the inaugural sessions.

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