Colombo: Sri Lanka had to cancel exams for millions of school students after the island country ran out of printing paper with Colombo short on money to finance the imports, news agency AFP reported quoting officials on Saturday. According to Sri Lankan Education authorities the term tests, scheduled a week from Monday, were postponed indefinitely due to an acute paper shortage as the country contends with its worst financial crisis since independence in 1948.
“School principals cannot hold the tests as printers are unable to secure foreign exchange to import necessary paper and ink,” AFP reported the department of Education of the Western Province as saying.
Term tests In Sri Lanka are part of a continuous assessment process to decide if students are promoted to the next grade at the end of the year. The move could reportedly hold up tests for around two-thirds of the country’s 4.5 million students.
What Brought The Acute Financial Crisis In Sri Lanka?
The economic crisis In Sri Lanka has been brought on by a shortage of foreign exchange reserves to finance essential imports, which led to the country running low on food, fuel and pharmaceuticals. Around USD 6.9 billion of the country’s debt needs to be reportedly serviced this year but its foreign currency reserves stood at only about USD 2.3 billion at the end of February.
As per the AFP report, earlier this year, the cash-strapped South Asian nation of 22 million had asked China, one of its main creditors, to help put off debt payments but there has been no official response yet from Beijing.
This week, Sri Lanka announced that it will seek an International Monetary Fund (IMF) bailout to resolve its worsening foreign debt crisis and shore up external reserves. On Friday, IMF confirmed it was considering President Gotabaya Rajapaksa’s surprise Wednesday request to discuss a bailout.
from World – India.com | Top Latest News from India, USA and Top national Breaking News stories https://ift.tt/kgzsHlr
