Out of touch, out of depth Minister: How schools teach Minister Amarasuriya the art of collecting money

THE recent assertion by Prime Minister and Minister of Education Harini Amarasuriya that Government schools are prohibited from collecting money beyond annual facilities fees and that any such collections must "stop immediately", if they exist, may sound principled.

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To parents who live within the system, however, it sounds painfully detached from reality.

I write as a parent of a student at Royal College Colombo, and what I describe here is based on direct experience. From conversations with parents in other leading schools in Colombo, it is clear that Royal is not an exception; it is merely a prominent example of a wider and deeply entrenched problem.

Highest facility fees, no accountability and lack of transparency

Royal College charges some of the highest annual facilities fees among Government schools. Yet, despite this, parents are largely in the dark as to how that money is actually used. Parents had to repeatedly pressure the Principal to release the 2024/25 annual accounts, which were disclosed only after sustained insistence. The accompanying audit report was scathing, raising serious questions about financial governance. Some say that proper records were often not maintained, making meaningful auditing difficult.

The School Development Society (SDS)—which operates under the Ministry and the school administration has, in practice, become deeply compromised. No responsible official was able to clearly explain how the facilities fees collected over the past year were spent or how those funds benefited students. Despite widespread awareness that many collections are illegal, money continues to be extracted from parents throughout the year under various labels. No SDS office bearer has been held accountable, a failure that ultimately falls within the Minister's own department.

How the system bypasses the law