China to provide entire requirement of school uniform fabric for 2025 as grant

Colombo, December 10 (Daily Mirror) - China is to provide the entire requirement of school uniform fabric for schoolchildren for the year 2025 as a grant, the Education Ministry said.

Accordingly, the school uniform fabric will be supplied to 10,096 government and government-aided schools and 822 approved Pirivenas.

In 2023, a total of 4,585,432 students received school uniform fabric. Seventy percent of the uniforms were provided as a grant by China, while the the remaining 30% were purchased from local textile manufacturers at a cost of Rs. 2,493,762 million.

In 2024, 4,559,420 students received school uniform fabric. Eighty percent of the fabric (9,259,259 metres) was provided by China as a grant, valued at Rs. 5,317 million. The remaining 20% (1,938,399 metres) was imported and provided by the supplier company itself as a grant through the Sri Lanka Government Commerce (Vivita) Corporation Limited, with Cabinet approval, at a cost of Rs. 970 million.

For 2025, a total of 4,640,086 students, including first-year students, those sitting for the Ordinary Level examinations for the first time and those sitting for the Advanced Level examinations for the first time, will receive school uniform fabric.

The total requirement for 2025 is 11,817 million metres of fabric, provided as a grant from the Chinese government.

The fabric will arrive in three shipments. The first and second shipments have already been received, and the third shipment is scheduled to arrive at the Colombo Port on December 25. Port clearance and distribution will be managed by the Department of Cooperative Development, as approved by the Cabinet.

Since 1992, the Education Ministry has been providing free school uniform fabric to students of government and aided schools, as well as to student monks and lay students of government-approved Pirivenas across the island. From 2015 to 2020, gift certificates were issued for obtaining school uniforms.

Starting in 2021, uniforms were manufactured and purchased from local textile manufacturers. However, due to the country's economic challenges resulting from the Covid-19 pandemic, China provided 70% of the uniform requirements for 2023 as a grant, with the remaining 30% purchased from local textile manufacturers.

For 2024, 80% of the uniform requirement was received as a grant from China, and the remaining 20% was imported by the Sri Lanka Government Commercial Corporation, with Cabinet approval, from the supplier company providing 

Pix by Kithsiri de Mel