Ed.Min. spent Rs 4b for...

Some 973,245 students in 6,946 schools islandwide, benefited from this initiative.

This is keeping with the MoE's new Education policy adopted last year to provide 13 years of mandatory Education to all children, to meet the aptitudes and expectations of students as well as their employability.

In addition to the meal programme, free vouchers were provided to approximately 4.3 million schoolchildren in 10,145 schools, to purchase school uniforms.

Accordingly, the report also found that the students:teacher ratio in government schools improved significantly during this period to 18:1, on headcount basis also.

In Govt-approved private schools and in schools for children with special needs it remained at 15:1. As for international schools, it was 10:1 in 2015. According to a study carried out by the UNESCO Institute for Statistics, the students-teacher ratio for Primary Education was 24:1.

Meanwhile, the non-State participation in Primary and Secondary Education continued to increase gradually, from the previous year. The total number of students in private schools, except international schools, increased to 136,407 from 136,228 in the previous year.

Currently, the Govt-approved private schools are under the supervision of Provincial and Zonal authorities. The regulation, supervision and monitoring of international schools are not under the purview of the MoE or, the provincial or zonal authorities.

The Report also noted that the number of students enrolled into international schools is on the rise, and it is important to have some mechanism to regulate and monitor these schools, to ensure the quality of Education provided by these institutes. However, the regulation and monitoring of international schools by the Govt. should not hinder the smooth functioning of high- standard international schools.