Developing 1000 Schools – Need to Learn Lessons from the Past!

The Island - By Eric J. de Silva                           

The government recently announced that 1000 schools will be developed island-wide to provide high quality education to children in rural areas without their having to seek admission to the so-called popular schools located in urban centres, after passing the Grade 5 Scholarship Examination or other such entrance tests. Referring to this proposal in his recent budget speech, H.E. the President said that 1000 well-equipped secondary schools will be developed over a period of 5 years, and that each one of them will be linked to a number of primary schools. He added that "the required funding of Rs. 15 billion has been mobilized from the World Bank and the Asian Development Bank". This is no small amount of money (there will obviously be other expenditures to be met from the national budget too), not to forget the fact that WB and ADB provide only loans, though on concessionary terms, and do not give outright gifts like many people tend to believe.   

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