Background
The Ministry of Justice has referred the matter under the instructions of Hon. Minister of Justice, Prison Affairs and Constitutional Reforms to the Law Commission to propose necessary reforms by the letter No. MOJ/L7/LC-(01)/2018 dated 06.07.2023. The request was forwarded to the Hon. Minister of Justice by some teachers to consider the following proposals on the development of the children with special needs.
- To transfer the whole authority of the exiting assisted schools to the Government or to Provincial Education Director or to the District Secretary
- To attach the teachers of the Assisted Schools to the service of teachers of Sri Lanka.
- To transfer the capacity building of the teachers of the assisted schools to the special education units of the Zonal education Office.
- To provide the opportunity to the children with special needs to collaborate with the ordinary children in some public events such as concerts, sports meets society activities etc.
- To start the schools for the children with special needs by utilizing the unutilized buildings and infrastructure of schools
- To create higher educational opportunities on the children with special needs for the teaching professional
Present Status:
The Law Commission has appointed a Sub Committee to consider the request:
- Pro.NazimaKamardeen – The Chairperson
- Mr. Chanaka De Silva P.C.
- Ms. Shehara Weerakoon
All relevant documentation has been collected and perused. Based on this information the subcommittee has arrived at some preliminary observations. There seem to be very few assisted schools left and these are mostly governed by religious organizations. Some schools have become fully private in the recent past because teacher salaries have been delayed by the government (eg: Methodist College Colombo). Teacher Unions have an interest in bringing these schools under more governmental control but this may have the opposite effect and cause more schools to become fully private. Therefore, the subcommittee decided to interview
the stakeholders who first presented the issue to ascertain if there is really a pressing need to investigate further, before proceeding to involve the governing authorities of these schools. Finalized the report of the subcommittee by the Law Commission at the Law Commission meeting held on 22 nd December 2023. The finalized Draft has forwarded to the Hon. Minister of Justice and the Secretary Justice.
Number of meetings held with stakeholders: Held on the 12th October 2023
Number of Sub Committee meetings: Two meetings have been held. Two meetings have also been held with the research assistant who has collected the necessary material and uploaded them to a Google drive accessible to all the subcommittee members.
Number of Law Commission Meetings discussed the progress of the Reforms: 06
