Colombo, Sep 16 (Bureau) Teachers in Sri Lankan preschools warn that early childhood development activities that help a child transition from home to school are on the verge of collapse as the number of children attending such schools has plummeted due to the ongoing economic crisis. There are a large number of state-run preschools and institutions that cater to under-privileged communities. Given that those are also manned by professionally qualified teachers, there is also an exodus of teachers from those schools, The Island newspaper on Friday quoted them as saying. They say that in the past few months most children have dropped out of preschools and most of those who continue to do so under great difficulties.
“Most children bring food with low nutritional value. Some kids have not had milk for weeks. Most kids bring rice with sambol. Some kids bring one ball of triposha. I have hardly seen children bringing meat, fish, or eggs,” an unnamed teacher was quoted as saying. She said that even children from middle class families consumed food with very little nutritional value. A large number of children were not able to pay fees and are dropping out. “We are also in trouble because it’s getting increasingly difficult to find paying customers. The government pays Rs. 2,500 per teacher who works in a government run facility but that’s not enough. The government needs to care about early childhood development more,” another teacher said.