Sinhalese appointed Secretary of Education for East

[TamilNet, Saturday, 19 April 2008, 15:03 GMT]
Condemning the hurried appointment of Uppul Weerawardene as the secretary of Ministry of Education in Eastern province, P.Ariyanarenthiran, Tamil National Alliance (TNA) Member of Parliament told TamilNet t that the appointment is further evidence of the Government of Sri Lanka's mission of continued Sinhalization of the east.

Excerpts from the comments made by Mr.Ariyanarenthiran follow:

“R.Thiyagalingam has been functioning as the secretary of Ministry of Education (MoE) in East since 2002 but all of sudden he was moved out of his position.

More than ninety percent of the schools in the East are Tamil schools, and the appointment of a Sinhalese to this position prior to the forthcoming provincial council elections raises serious doubts as to the motives of the Government of Sri Lanka (GOSL) towards East.

“Uppul Weerawardene who retired recently after serving as the secretary of Education Ministry in North Western province was appointed as Deputy Secretary of MoE and then moved to the position of Secretary of the Ministry.

“There cannot be an alternate view to the fact that East is the homeland of Tamils, and as such, a Tamil administrator should have been appointed as the new secretary. However, the recent action by the GOSL will create a serious issues in running the education system of the east, Ariyanarenthiran said.

Meanwhile Mr.Thiyagalingam has been appointed as the secretary of Eastern Provincial Council (EPC) with effect from 16 April by Major General Mohan Wijeyawickrema, the Governor of Eastern province.

K.Nadarajah, Assistant secretary of Public Service Commission (PSC) has been appointed as the deputy secretary of EPC.

The Eastern Provincial Council elections to elect 37 members is scheduled to be held 10 May.