Saturday, April 27, 2013

No Grade One admissions in 275 schools

Ceylon Today, Saturday, 27 Apr 2013
Not a single student has been admitted to the grade one classes of 275 schools in the country, Minister of Education, Bandula Gunawardena told Parliament yesterday.


He said there are 2,123 schools in the country to which the grade one admissions were less than ten students.


The minister said there are 123 schools, which had only one Grade One admission, 143 schools, which had admitted only two students, 181 schools, which admitted three students, 210 schools, which admitted only four students and 223 schools that received only five Grade One admissions.


The minister said there are 963 schools which had admitted six to nine students for the Grade One classes, and added that the situation was a result of the attitude of parents to get their children admitted to popular schools in the cities. It had also resulted in a poor student-teacher ratio of five to one in the rural schools, the minister said. During the last seven months, 36 schools in rural areas had been closed down owing to there being less number of students.


The minister said this in response to a query raised by Kurunegala District UNP MP Akila Viraj Kariyawasam.

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