The Cabinet has approved a proposal from Education Minister Susil Premajayantha to establish a loan facility for students at the National Colleges of Education. The National Colleges of Education currently offer teacher training with two years of institutional training and a one year internship, during this period they are only paid Rs. 5000. However, the amount has been deemed insufficient since other expenses such as accommodation and travelling costs have to be borne upon by the teachers. Accordingly the Cabinet of Ministers approved the proposal to provide a financial provision of maximum Rs. 10,000 a month to a trainee, in addition to the allowance currently being paid, through a state bank on subsidised interest basis. Another proposal by the Education Minister to purchase the required amount of school uniform material from local textile manufacturers was accepted by the Cabinet.
Since uniform material for next year must be provided to students before the end of the 2022 academic year, a request was made to China to provide the material. However, China agreed only to provide a portion of the materials, and thereby the Cabinet approved the proposal to purchase the rest from local textile manufacturers. In a Cabinet briefing held this week, Mass Media Minister Bandula Gunawardena also said a committee had been appointed to decide whether a voucher or uniform material would be provided for the 2024 academic year.