Schools in Northeast Neglected - MP

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 09 December 1998, 14:20 GMT]
Mr. R. Sambanthan, TULF parliamentarian for the Trincomalee district, said in parliament yesterday that Tamil medium schools in the Northeast province were being neglected and that Tamil medium teachers were discriminated against.

He was speaking during the debate on the budget for the Ministry of Education and Higher Education.

He said that according to figures released in 1996 there was a shortage of ten-thousand Tamil medium teachers and only 4000 appointments have since been made.

Recruiting 10,000 Tamil medium teachers under a scheme financed by the World Bank has not been realised, he said further.

He pointed out that 10000 more Sinhala medium teachers were appointed despite the surplus of 14000 Sinhala medium teachers.

The parliamentarian also accused the ministry of not utilising funds granted by the Asian Development Bank (ADB) for the development of Schools in the Northeast.

He said that ; 24 schools in the Western province, 25 in the Central province, 26 in Southern province, 22 in Sabragamuwa province and 19 in Uwa Province have been selected for the School development projects funded by the Asia Development Bank, while only 12 schools were selected in the Northeast for the project.

Furthermore, he said that all of the 12 schools selected for the Asia Development projects in the Northeast were in the Amparai district, while other districts in the province had been completely neglected.

He also said that there was a severe shortage of teachers in the fields of computer studies, science, English and mathematics in the Northeast province.