Roshan Ranasinghe, Minister of State for Provincial Councils and Local Government, said, “It would have been better if the ‘Yahapalana’ government had built toilets in schools that did not have toilets when they spoke of giving tabs to school children.”
This was stated by Minister of State Roshan Ranasinghe while inspecting the shortcomings of Dimbulagala Welikanda Ruhunuketha Kanishta Vidyalaya with the Governor of the North Central Province Mahipala Herath.
“There is a lack of toilet facilities in rural schools. There is a shortage of drinking water. It is not practical to talk about the education of children without addressing those basic issues,” he said.
In addition to the 9 National Schools in the Polonnaruwa District, there are 244 Provincial Council Schools in which more than 90,000 children are educated and more than 5000 teachers are employed.
The Minister of State said that nearly 15,000 people who never went to a school, live in the Polonnaruwa District and there are more than 500 children at home who are still of school age but have not gone to a school.
The Minister further said that the government officials responsible for these issues will intervene and solve them.
Governor of the North Central Province Mahipala Herath, Chief Secretary of the North Central Province, current Provincial Secretary of Education, Zonal and Divisional Directors and a number of officials were present on this occasion.
