The Island Editorial

Priorities mixed up

16 November 2016

 

All politicians have one thing in common—their remarkable ability to pull the wool over the eyes of the public. They have got it down to a fine art and apparently take turns to deceive the people while living off the fat of the land and throwing Citizen Perera a potato or a sprat through a budget.

It is being argued in some quarters that Sri Lankans are born suckers and gluttons for punishment. We disagree! An election is a case of Hobson’s choice for them. They have to choose between two groups of crooks for want of a better alternative.

The present government came to power, promising good governance and one million jobs among other things. The biggest ever financial scam happened within a few weeks of the formation of the ‘yahapalana’ administration last year. The racketeers are still at large. Adding insult to injury, they are openly investing their ill-gotten wealth while the government is busy trying to trace the stolen funds in the possession of its rivals out of power.

Nothing is being spoken of the promised jobs at present. Instead, the government worthies continue to bash their opponents; local professionals fear that foreigners might take the bread out of their mouths owing to an economic cooperation pact on the cards.

Now, the government is offering tablet PCs to schoolchildren! One is reminded of the gold chains and bracelets the UNP-led UNF promised the youth in 2001. (It also undertook to send rural farmers’ pathola and vetakolu to Tokyo, of all places!)

Before undertaking the tabs-for-schoolchildren project, the Education Minister ought to try to make the students in GCE A/L classes attend school. Most of them opt for private tuition in the morning as they hardly learn anything in school.

The provision of free school uniform material which stood poor students and their parents in good stead has been replaced with a voucher system in spite of protests. The government is hell bent on cutting costs, nay, scrimping and saving to enable political leaders and their cronies to live in clover. It was only a few months ago that a supplementary estimate was presented to Parliament for purchasing a fleet of super luxury vehicles for ministers.

President Maithripala Sirisena has publicly lamented that there are many schools without toilets. A National Water Supply and Drainage Board survey revealed a few years ago that about 1,300 primary and secondary schools did not have proper sanitary facilities. Two civil society outfits have disclosed that there are schools where students are discouraged from drinking water for want of toilets and this practice has rendered those hapless children prone to renal diseases. Absenteeism is common among girls in such schools during menstruation, they have pointed out. This is a damning indictment on the two main parties which have closed ranks to rule the country.

Rural schools are being closed down at a rate and most schools are experiencing a chronic shortage of teachers for vital subjects like science, mathematics and English. Newspapers carry, from time to time, pictures of schoolchildren studying under trees.

The government also pledged to grant university students tablet PCs and this promise remains unfulfilled. They deserve computers more than any other category of students. Why doesn’t the government make good on its promise to university students?

It is not being argued that tablet PCs should not be given to schoolchildren. The point we are trying to make is that the government must get its priorities right and rationalise its expenditure without pursuing a populist agenda and overstretching its resources in the process. Budget 2017 has reduced funds for the Education Ministry, from Rs. 171.4 in 2016, to Rs. 162.4 billion in 2017. This is a massive cut. The question is whether the government is really equal to the task of providing schoolchildren with tabs.