Chief Minister of the Northern Province, C.V. Vigneswaran, has complained to the European Union (EU) human rights inspection team that the Sri Lankan army is running hundreds of schools in his province when it has no right to do so under the 13th amendment of the constitution, the New Indian Express reported today.
The NIE says that local media reports have also complained that in Vavuniya, Kilinochchi and Mullaitivu districts, the army’s Civil Defense Unit is running 344 primary schools, employing 689 Tamil women as teachers at good salaries, when as per the constitution, school education is a devolved subject and schools in the province are to be run by the provincial ministry of education.
The number of teachers in the army-run primary schools is the same as the number of teachers working in the provincial council-run primary schools, the Chief Minister pointed out in his interaction with the EU headed by Jean Lambert MEP last Saturday.
He also said that in the schools run by the army, teachers are made to wear a uniform which has raised concerns among the people as to whether they are being recruited to the army.
-NIE
-Agencies
