A Sinhala nationalist politician has called for Sinhala language schools to be set up in the Tamil homeland across the North-East, as he addressed parliament.
Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna's Member of Parliament Gevindu Kumaratunga stated that all 25 districts in the country have Tamil medium primary schools and that the absence of Sinhala medium schools in the North and East “is a matter of concern”.
“If we look at the results of the Grade 5 scholarship exams cut-off marks, we see results coming out of 25 districts in Tamil medium,” he said.
“Even after 15 years since the end of the war, there are no Sinhala mediums in the districts of Kilinochchi, Mannar, and Batticaloa. This shows that there is no primary education in the Sinhala medium in the North-East,” he said. “There are many Sinhalese villages even in Batticaloa, there were Sinhala Medium schools but they are not functioning.”
Kumaratunga made these remarks while addressing a debate on the Gender Equality Bill in parliament recently. He mentioned he has raised his concerns regarding the absence of Sinhala medium schools in the North-East previously.
The extremist politician has previously praised the Sri Lankan army for setting “an example to the world by launching a humanitarian operation” – the term he used to describe the genocide of tens of thousands of Tamils in 2009.
