While schoolchildren have not received school uniform material or textbooks in time for the new academic year in recent years, this year the Ministry of Education has taken the necessary measures to fulfil these requirements, The Sunday Morning learns.
With the first term of the 2023 school academic year set to commence after 24 March 2023, Minister of Education Susil Premajayantha noted that the ministry’s Procurement Division had taken steps to secure the necessary uniform material in time, while the Educational Publications Department would look into printing the necessary school textbooks.
Chinese assistance
In terms of school uniform material, the Ministry of Education is to obtain 70% of the material required from the People’s Republic of China and expects the shipment to arrive by the end of January.
“The Chinese Government has agreed to send the uniform material packaged according to our requirements. The first half of the shipment was to arrive in December 2022 and the rest of it will arrive by the end of this month. For the remaining 30% requirement, we will source locally. Accordingly, before the beginning of the first school term for 2023 in March, we will be able to distribute the school uniform material as well,” Premajayantha noted.
In a communiqué released by the Chinese Embassy in Colombo in December 2022, it was stated that China would donate Rs. 5 billion worth of school uniform material to Sri Lanka to fulfil 70% of the material requirement.
The first batch of material was dispatched in December containing close to three million metres of finished material in 38,000 boxes via 20 containers – 2,374,427.5 metres of white material for shirts/frocks, 350,031.5 metres of white material for trousers, 150,003.5 metres of blue material for trousers, and 138,134 metres of orange material for robes.
Indian assistance
Premajayantha further highlighted that, due to the foreign currency deficit, the Department of Government Printing had delayed obtaining the necessary raw material to print school textbooks.
“However, the Sri Lanka Government was able to obtain the necessary funding through the Indian Credit Line. Following this, the Department of Government Printing was able to commence printing after opening Letters of Credit.
“Meanwhile, the private sector too has started printing the necessary textbooks and has promised that by the end of February 2023, it will be able to complete the process. Accordingly, we will be able to distribute the school textbooks before the first term for 2023 commences in the last week of March.”
Massive printing costs
Further elaborating on the costs involved in printing textbooks for 2023, Department of Educational Publications Commissioner General P.N. Ilapperuma noted: “The cost to print school textbooks has increased by fivefold and we have estimated that the total cost to print 32.89 million books will be around Rs. 16 billion. The Indian Credit Line has allocated $ 20 million and we used that credit facility to purchase the necessary printing material.
“Textbooks will be printed through the Department of Government Printing and through the private sector, for which we called tenders in July last year. Accordingly, 14.70 million textbooks will be printed by the Department of Government Printing and 18.19 million textbooks will be printed through the private sector.”
Going digital
In order to streamline and digitalise the process of ordering school textbooks, the Department of Educational Publications introduced a web portal in October last year.
Schools were given access to submit their textbook requirements for the 2023 academic year according to the number of students studying the subject, the number of textbooks required to supplement the student requirement, the number of textbooks that could be reused, and the additional number of textbooks needed.
For schools that did not have computer facilities, forms were given by the Regional Education Office and the data was entered by the coordinating officer of the Regional Resource Centre.
Budgetary allocations
In the 2023 Budgetary allocations towards the provision of school uniform material, school textbooks, and providing shoes for schoolchildren from rural schools, the Government of Sri Lanka had made the following allocation: Rs. 30 billion to providing school textbooks from Grades 1 to 13, teacher guides, and modules of new curricular to be introduced in 2023; Rs. 3.5 billion to provide school uniforms; and Rs. 1.2 billion to provide shoes for 700,000 students in schools of rural and remote areas.