Noting that education is a sector that plays a key role in the country, the Inter-University Students’ Federation (IUSF) urged the Government to allocate the highest amount of funds to the education sector in the upcoming Budget for next year (2026). 

As an initial step towards the ideal fund allocation of 6% of the Budget, it urged the Government to allocate 3% in the upcoming Budget.

IUSF Convenor Madushan Chandrajith made this statement while speaking to the media yesterday (16). He said that the IUSF has submitted suggestions to the Education Ministry with regard to allocating funds for several identified areas of the education sector, and that the same was submitted to the Finance Ministry. 

“The key concern that we are highlighting is that in the recent past, State funds allocated for the education sector were significantly reduced. Because of that, a serious decline in the education sector occurred, particularly in school education, university education and vocational education,” he said, claiming that although the Government vowed to increase fund allocations for the education sector, it has only increased around 0.1% of the gross domestic product (GDP) compared to the amount allocated by the former Government. 

Chandrajith further said that serious crises have arisen in the school, university and vocational education sectors, and that it is high time to pay attention to increasing the fund allocations for the education sector. 

Among the pressing needs that he pointed out included increasing the Mahapola Scholarship, resolving university hostel-related issues, identifying and addressing the issues of schools lacking basic facilities, and removing the Value Added Tax imposed on school supplies.