The Premier made these comments at the opening ceremony of the Institute of Technology, University of Moratuwa at Diyagama in Homagama on 10th August.  

He said, they have also launched a program to take wi-fi to rural areas and priority will be given to villages that have schools with Advanced Level streams.

“To have a strong economy a strong education is a must. If we have money we can use it for education. After the good governance government came to power, we have been able to pay the debt by increasing the income. The final aim of the government is to allocate 6% of the Gross Domestic Production for education and this can be only achieved through a strong economy.”

In addition to the program ‘Nearest School is the Best School’, the basic plans to make 13 years of schooling mandatory will be started next year and it will be implemented within the next two years.

Prime Minister further said that another big problem is vocational training and it is one of the weakest sectors in the country.  The government has to organize this sector properly. Prime Minister said that though the children are given the theoretical knowledge, the training needed for a job is not given. The government must develop universities too as we cannot be happy about the status of some universities, he added.