The government has decided to provide the school stationery allowance granted for the children of “Aswesuma” beneficiaries to all children in 6,576 schools with less than 300 students who are from families that are not beneficiaries of the welfare scheme, children living in Child Development Centers and both lay and monastic students in all ‘Pirivenas’ across the island. 

Announcing the Cabinet decisions today (07), Cabinet Spokesman, Minister Dr. Nalinda Jayatissa said that steps have already been taken to provide an allowance of Rs. 6,000 each to schoolchildren from “Aswesuma” beneficiary families to access school stationery.

The Ministry of Education, Higher Education and Vocational Education has been entrusted with the provision of the allowance to orphaned children who do not belong to the relevant beneficiary families, children from families with disabled parents, all school-age children in children’s homes and children belonging to groups who have become helpless due to special reasons.

Considering the current lack of an up-to-date database to select children from families belonging to those categories and the need to provide the proposed stationery at the beginning of the new school term of 2025, the Cabinet approved the proposal submitted by the Prime Minister in his capacity as the Minister of Education to provide a stationery allowance to all aforesaid student groups, the Minister added.