Education Minister gets full time for his subject at Budget debate

Education Minister Susil Premajayantha has held the education portfolio under several different Presidents. When he spoke on the funds allocated to the ministry at the Budget debate in Parliament on Thursday, he noted that he had been allocated 40 minutes to speak.

This was in stark contrast to what happened during the previous administration of former President Gotabaya Rajapaksa, when as Education State Minister, he had been allocated just eight minutes.

“How fate has come around. I was thrown out from my post, but yet here I am,” he quipped.

Mr Premajayantha of course, was sacked by President Rajapaksa after he publicly cricitised the government, when television cameras captured him shopping for vegetables at the Delkanda public market. At the time, Mr Premajayantha was highly critical of the then government’s agricultural policies.