The United National Party (UNP) today charged that the country’s Minister of Education does not possess even an “average” intelligence to identify the difference between an ‘agreement’ and an ‘understanding.’

Opposition Leader Ranil Wickramasinghe, during a recent press briefing, had alleged that the government has reached a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the International Monitory Fund (IMF) to cut down on the state’s financial allocation for education.

The Minister of Education Bandula Gunawardena, responding to this accusation yesterday, challenged the opposition party to reveal the agreement reached with the IMF.

Our country’s Education Minister does not even possess an average level of intelligence to differentiate between ‘agreement’ and ‘understanding’, UNP Parliamentarian Akila Viraj Kariyawasam told reporters in Colombo. 

“An agreement is one thing and an understanding is another,” he said.

Kariyawasam claimed that the recent curtailing of fund allocated for the education sector were made based on this MoU and assured his party would prove this allegation in the near future.

 The government has agreed with the IMF and the World Bank to continuously cut down on the welfare expenses on education as well as health services, he alleged.

However, the IMP today denied it had made any recommended to the Sri Lankan Government to cut down budgets on education, insisting that spending on education is vital for the country.

The head of the IMF staff mission visiting Sri Lanka, Mr. Todd Schneider said education budgets was not the delegation’s area of expertise and that they believe increasing funds allocated for education is important.

Mr. Schneider was responding to a question put forward by a reporter during a press conference held in Colombo today, at the end of their visit from May 20-30 to conduct discussions for the 2014 Article IV consultation – the IMF’s regular exchange of economic views with member nations.