Opportunities for higher education - Ekanayake

by Mohammed NAALIR

A large number of students who are capable of following higher studies do not have a proper educational system to continue their higher studies due to lack of opportunities for higher education. Deputy Minister of Higher Education Nandamithra Ekanayake said.

He said that parents face severe hardships in providing higher education to their children due to the limited admission policy for higher education in the country.

Deputy Minister Ekanayake who was addressing the inaugural and affiliation ceremony of the Graduate Institute of Science and Management (GISM) with Massey University in New Zealand at the Galle Face Hotel, said that students who reach the higher education point amidst huge difficulties do not have the privileges for higher education as only a limited number is admitted to universities.

Deputy Minister Ekanayake said that the setting up of higher education institutes such as GISM would help to further uplift the higher education sector of this country while providing opportunities for deserving students for higher education. The large sum of money which is spent on higher education by Sri Lankans in foreign countries could be saved with the setting up of such bodies, the Deputy Minister said.

Petroleum Industries Minister Susil Premajayantha said that the Government was taking every possible step to uplift the higher education sector under the Mahinda Chinthana national development concept.

As Sri Lankans it was our duty to promote education in streams such as science, technology, management, engineering and mathematics. Sri Lanka's literacy rate is 96 percent. The Minister said that we have achieved the millennium development goals especially in the field of education.

Minister Premajayantha said that for the first time in the history of Sri Lanka, an education institute has been affiliated with the Massey University a leading university in New Zealand.

The Minister said that 325,000 students throughout the country are admitted annually to grade one in private, Government and international schools.

There are 10,000 public schools and over 120 international schools in the country. This represents 99 percent of the entire school admissions for grade one. The remaining one percent in the North and the East did not attend school due to LTTE terrorism which continued for 30 years in the country. However, since this year almost 100 percent attend school.