The government has allocated Rs. 749 billion to the education sector in the 2027 Budget, including a record Rs. 104 billion for capital expenditure, Prime Minister and Education Minister Dr. Harini Amarasuriya told Parliament on Friday, the Daily Mirror reported.
She was speaking during the second reading debate on the Budget, which opened on Friday. The allocation accounts for 12.12 per cent of total government expenditure, she said.
The percentage does not reconcile with the published totals
The 12.12 per cent figure is the Prime Minister’s, and it does not match either of the expenditure totals already on the record for 2027.
The Appropriation Bill gazetted on 18 September sets service expenditure for ministries and departments at Rs. 4.99 trillion, with a further Rs. 4.92 trillion in statutory expenditure charged to the Consolidated Fund — a total of about Rs. 9.92 trillion.
Measured against that Rs. 9.92 trillion total, Rs. 749 billion is 7.6 per cent. Measured against the Rs. 4.99 trillion service expenditure alone, it is 15 per cent. For Rs. 749 billion to be 12.12 per cent, the denominator would have to be roughly Rs. 6.18 trillion — a figure that sits between the two and that no filing reached for this report states.
The most likely explanation is that the Prime Minister is measuring against a narrower base that excludes part of the statutory expenditure, the bulk of which is debt servicing. Neither she nor the Daily Mirror’s report says so, and this desk is not assuming it. Readers should treat the rupee allocation as the firm number and the percentage as unexplained until the base is stated.
What the Rs. 749 billion is not
A separate Daily Mirror breakdown of where the new money in Budget 2027 goes puts education at Rs. 8.6 billion across seven proposals, or 2.4 per cent of new spending. That is a different measure. The Rs. 8.6 billion covers new budget proposals; the Rs. 749 billion is the whole sector allocation, the great majority of which is existing recurrent cost — salaries above all. The two should not be compared.
The smart board exchange
The figure came out in an exchange with the Opposition. Responding to Opposition Leader Sajith Premadasa’s allegation that the government had failed to provide even a single smart board to schools, Amarasuriya rejected the claim and said 4,570 smart boards had already been distributed to schools across the country.
That number has a history worth stating. On 22 September the Prime Minister told Parliament that 4,570 smart boards were “being imported and distributed”, drawn from three separate funding streams. The figure on Friday is identical, but the status has changed — from a programme under way to one described as completed. No filing explains whether 4,570 is the full programme total now delivered, or the same planning figure restated.
The connectivity target has moved
Amarasuriya also said steps were under way to give secondary schools internet connections, with 6,000 connections expected to be established by December this year.
In October the Prime Minister pledged digital connectivity for every secondary school by year-end. Telecommunications Regulatory Commission figures at that time put the network at 6,225 government secondary schools, of which 3,609 were connected and 2,616 still in progress.
Against that baseline, 6,000 connections by December is a little short of the full 6,225 — and roughly a doubling of the October figure in under three months. The Prime Minister did not address the gap, and the report does not say whether the remaining schools have a date.
Not reported
The filing does not break the Rs. 749 billion down between recurrent and capital spending beyond the Rs. 104 billion capital figure, does not say what the 2026 education allocation was or give a year-on-year comparison, and does not identify what makes the Rs. 104 billion a record. It does not say when the 4,570 smart boards were delivered or to how many schools, and gives no response from the Opposition Leader to the Prime Minister’s rebuttal.
On sourcing: this report rests on a single verified source. The Daily Mirror filed at 1.12 p.m. Colombo time on Friday, and keyword sweeps of the Hiru News, NewsFirst and EconomyNext rails, plus a web search, found no other newsroom carrying the speech at the time of writing. The debate is in progress and corroboration is likely later in the day.