Uniform vouchers under fire in House

by Uditha Kumarasinghe

The Education Ministry's decision to introduce vouchers to purchase school uniform material came under fire from Opposition members in Parliament yesterday who alleged that the voucher had not been received by many students even by Friday, December 4, the final day of school for this year.

UPFA Gampaha District Parliamentarian Prasanna Ranaweera said that many students in government schools in the Gampaha district had not received the voucher including his own child.

MP Ranaweera said, "If this is the plight of the child of a Member of Parliament, then the plight of other students must be worse."

JVP Kalutara District MP, Dr. Nalinda Jayatisssa said that the decision to introduce vouchers would put an additional strain on school staff who are already stretched.

However, responding to the queries raised by Opposition MPs, Education Minister Akila Viraj Kariawasam defended the move to issue vouchers to schoolchildren instead of the material that was distributed among them under the previous scheme.

Many irregularities occurred under the previous scheme and sub standard material was given to schoolchildren, he said.

The Minister said, "There would be a few teething problems but the new voucher system would work better in the long run."