SAITM will be shut down if proper standards not met

SAITM will be closed down if it fails maintain the required standards, Deputy Minister Ajith P Perera said today. He said it would be decided upon by the committee to be set up soon to monitor educational institutions. The deputy minister this at a media briefing held last afternoon to explain the government’s official stand on SAITM. The deputy Minister said this committee would monitor all private educational institutions including those which were to be set up in the future. He said SAITM owners had agreed to hand over the Nevile Fernando Hospital to be operated as a state teaching hospital. The government has proposed that SAITM students should sit the Act 16 exam and undergo further clinical training at the Homagama and Avsissawella hospitals and that SAITM should suspend the enrollment of new students. Deputy Minister Eran Wickramaratna said the government had also decided to introduce laws making it compulsory for profit-making private education institutions including SAITM to be listed in the Colombo Stock Exchange. (Yohan Perera)