Colombo (LNW): The Parliament Select Committee (PSC) to make suitable recommendations for the expansion of higher education opportunities in Sri Lanka chaired by Justice Minister Wijeyadasa Rajapakshe emphasised that it is important to expand higher education to match the labour market.
Many Members of Parliament expressed their views regarding the expansion of higher education opportunities in the country at the Committee meeting held. The chairman of the committee, Rajapakshe said that appropriate methods should be prepared to increase higher education opportunities for the students who drop out of education after the Advanced Level examination.
Many MPs pointed out that Sri Lanka lose a large amount of foreign exchange due to Sri Lankan students going abroad for higher education, and to prevent this, higher education opportunities should be expanded in Sri Lanka together with international universities. They further pointed out that this will attract foreign students and thus there is an opportunity to make Sri Lanka a center of higher education.
It was also discussed that there is a great demand for nursing professionals of Sri Lanka in foreign countries and the possibility of taking advantage of this opportunity to send more nurses from Sri Lanka to foreign countries.
The Members of Parliament also emphasised that the basic structure of providing proper education and training to nurses in accordance with international standards should be established. For this, they also pointed out the need to provide English language knowledge to the nursing professionals during their training.
Committee Members State Minister Dr. Seetha Arambepola, MPs Rauff Hakeem, Eran Wickramaratne and (Prof.) Charitha Herath and Minister Mahinda Amaraweera, State Minister Diana Gamage, MPs Dr. Rajitha Senarathne, Weerasumana Weerasinghe and Gamini Waleboda were present at the Committee meeting held.
