Sri Lanka postpones exams of millions of students because of… lack of paper

Al Jazeera channel reported that the postponed exam in the Western province of Sri Lanka was scheduled to be held from March 21 and lasted a week. Job postpone the exam This is thought to affect two-thirds of the 4.5 million schoolchildren in Sri Lanka.

The Department of Education of the West Province announced that it could not hold the exam due to a lack of foreign currency import paper and ink.

Semester exams for grades 9, 10 and 11 in Sri Lanka are part of an ongoing review process to decide whether a student can advance to the next grade at the end of the year.

Sri Lanka is facing a crisis financial crisis worst since independence in 1948. A foreign currency shortage due to the crisis has made it difficult for Sri Lanka to import, leading to a shortage of many essential imports such as food, natural gas, and food. materials and pharmaceuticals.

The postponement is expected to affect two-thirds of the 4.5 million students in Sri Lanka. (Photo: Xinhua News Agency)

The South Asian country of 22 million people announced in March that it was seeking a bailout from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to solve its worsening external debt crisis and boost its foreign reserves. repent.

The IMF on March 18 confirmed that it was considering the proposal of Sri Lankan President Gotabaya Rajapaksa for a bailout package. In addition, India also provides a credit line of 1 billion USD for Sri Lanka to buy necessary food and medicine.

Sri Lanka needs to pay off a debt of $6.9 billion this year, but as of the end of February, its foreign currency reserves were only about $2.3 billion.

Across the country, long lines of people waited to buy groceries and oil, while the Government implemented a rotating power cut and limited sales of sugar, powdered milk, lentils and rice.

Sri Lanka earlier this year asked China, one of its main creditors, to extend the repayment period, but has not yet received an official response from Beijing.

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