Detainees contribute to Govt coffers

by S.M. Wijayaratne - Kurunegala Corr.

The government saved of Rs. 570 million last year using the labour of detainees of prisons islandwide. Those detainees were engaged in construction and manufacturing handicrafts under the guidance of well-experienced govt. instructors of those fields. Those detainees were thus vocationally trained for a better tomorrow after they discharge from jail terms. More than 18,000 detainees were thus vocationally trained during the past two years and they are able to be self-employed when they finish their jail terms.

Not only that, those detainees were deployed in growing food crops such as paddy and vegetables and the harvests thus obtained were used for their own consumption in jails. That too led to save much money for the government. In 2013, a special school would be opened up for detainees in prisons to offer them with a sound general education to guide them on how to live in the society as dignified and responsible citizens of Sri Lanka after their rehabilitation process is over said the Director of non-formal education in Kurunegala W.M. Jayasooriya at a seminar on “The benefits of Non-Formal Education System in Sri Lanka” for government school heads of the North Western Province recently in Kurunegala.

School drop-outs would be socialised by way of training them on useful vocations of their choice and 150,000 unemployed school drop-outs would be thus trained during next six months as per the guidance of Minister of Education Bandula Gunawardena and the Minister of Skills Development and Youth Affairs Dullus Allahapperuma, Jayasooriya said.