The Cabinet of Ministers has approved a monthly allowance of Rs. 5,000 for students with special educational needs from low-income families, with 5,530 students identified as eligible.
The allowance originates in a proposal in the 2026 Budget covering eligible students attending schools across the island. Applications were subsequently invited to assess which low-income students with special educational needs qualified, and 5,530 were identified, Ada Derana and Daily Mirror both reported.
Cabinet approval was granted for a proposal submitted by the Prime Minister in her capacity as Minister of Education, Higher Education and Vocational Education, to allocate the funds needed to pay the allowance to all eligible students. Prime Minister Harini Amarasuriya holds the education portfolio.
At the Rs. 5,000 monthly rate, payments to 5,530 students amount to roughly Rs. 27.7 million a month, or about Rs. 332 million over a full year. Neither newsroom gave a Treasury cost figure, and neither said when payments would begin or how the allowance would be disbursed.
A separate scheme from the university allowance
This decision covers school students and is distinct from the Rs. 5,000 monthly allowance for university students with disabilities that the University Grants Commission began paying in June, with arrears backdated to January. The two schemes share the same monthly figure but cover different student populations and are administered separately.
Context
The government has directed a series of budget measures at education access this year, including forex allowances for students on overseas scholarships and a programme to connect all 10,000 schools to the internet. A government delegation also presented Sri Lanka’s first report under the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities to a UN committee in Geneva on August 14 and 15.
Neither source identified which disability categories fall within the “special educational needs” definition used to assess the 5,530 applicants.
