A court-ordered probe into a shocking textbook scandal has put Sri Lanka’s education bureaucracy under intense scrutiny, with investigators warned not to shield those responsible for a costly and damaging mistake.
Nugegoda Magistrate Ruwanthika Marasinghe has directed the Criminal Investigation Department to name the Secretary to the Ministry of Education, Nalaka Kaluwewa, as a suspect and produce him before court if evidence emerges regarding the inclusion of a link to an obscene website in several Grade 6 English language modules introduced under the new education reforms.
The Magistrate ordered a full-scale investigation to determine whether the website address was inserted intentionally, by mistake, or through negligence. She also instructed the CID to produce the printed modules as court exhibits after examining the teacher training manual and correction sheets that contained the controversial link.
These directives were issued after considering submissions made by lawyers representing the Education Professionals Association and the Grade Principals Association.
When the case was taken up, President’s Counsel Maithri Gunaratne stated that the CID appeared to be acting only on a complaint made by the Education Secretary, while disregarding statements from the original complainants. He argued that investigating based on the complaint of a person who should potentially be a suspect amounted to protecting the guilty. He further noted that the government had suffered a financial loss exceeding Rs. 60 million due to the printing of the textbooks.
Chief Inspector Kelum Karunaratne, OIC of the CID’s Special Investigation Unit, informed court that statements had been recorded from 35 individuals. He said two lecturers from the National Institute of Education had been questioned and forensic examinations were underway on emails and electronic devices linked to the case.
However, Gunaratne warned that delays in the investigation could allow evidence to be destroyed, adding that a private case would be filed if progress remained slow.
