By Saman Indrajith

Opposition and SJB leader Sajith Premadasa told Parliament yesterday that the country’s education sector was in dire straits owing to neglect, brain drain caused by unbearable taxes, and sticking to age-old policies.

Participating in the debate on Budget 2024, under the expenditure heads of the Ministry of Education, Premadasa said that around half of university teachers had left the country to work abroad. “There should be at least 12,000 lecturers in the universities but the actual number that we have now is around 5,000 and that, too, is fast dwindling because university teachers are leaving the country owing to the unbearable taxes.”

Premadasa said that all students, from Grade one to Grade 13, should be given IT education in the English medium. “The policies made during the 1950s to teach everything in Sinhala are no longer valid today. We as a nation must get rid of the island mentality. Time has come to adopt English as a medium of instruction for many subjects in schools.

No action has been taken to supplement the education that had been missed by the students for two years owing to the COVID pandemic.

Children of many who oppose private university education study in foreign universities.