In 2015, the UNP government after returning to power,
reintroduced
a School Uniform Voucher despite much
opposition.
Parents could use vouchers at any shop to buy cloth or ready made
garments of their choice and were en-cashed by merchant at bank.
In 1991, President Ranasinghe Premadasa introduced free uniforms for
school children; to stop children giving up schooling because they
did not have proper clothes to wear.
In 2002, the UNP
government replaced the distribution of cloth and introduced a money
voucher that reflected market prices to buy uniform material, which
caused many problems. The Vouchers could only be cashed in a State
bank which had parents sacrifice a half-day to get cash, and
the money did not necessarily go to buy uniforms for the children.
Within an year reverted to distribution of cloth which was also
criticised
in 2014 based on quality of cloth and cost of custom stitching.
By then the garment industry had made available Ready-Made School Uniforms.
In 2015, the UNP government after returning to power,
reintroduced
a School Uniform Voucher despite much
opposition.
Parents could use vouchers at any shop to buy cloth or ready made
garments of their choice and were en-cashed by merchant at bank.
The Voucher evolved from a simple document, to a Standard document
with a number of regular panels, with some additional panels on some
years.
All text was both in Sinhala and in Thamil, but using larger Sinhala Font.
Only the Issuers name appeared also in English, but curiously the name
of Province, District and School was print entered in English.
Issuer Name : National Emblem to the upper left with Name
අධ්‍යාපන අමාත්‍යාංශය in Sinhala,
in Thamil and Ministry of Education in English.
Always on upper left corner.
Logo with year : Logo within circle with Text around it,
නොමිලේ පාසල් නිල ඇඳුම් in Sinhala above
and in Thamil below which translates to Free school uniforms. School Year under. Next to Issuer.
Voucher Identity :
පාසල් නිල ඇඳුමි ලබා දීම සඳහා වන තිළිණ පත in Sinhala
and in Thamil which translates to Gift voucher for school uniforms.
Bar Code : with Serial Number which was not on 2016 or 2018 issues.
Political Panel : Used 2017-2019
Four pictures of Politician Busts with Sri Lanka Lion Flag in each
background with names below in both in Sinhala and in Thamil.
Maithripala Sirisena, President;
Ranil Wickremesinghe, Prime Minister;
Akila Viraj Kariyawasam, Minister of Education; and
Velusami Radhakrishnan, State Minister of Education.
Province/District/School : Labels
පළාත which changed for only 2018 to
කලාපය (Region) /
දිස්ත්‍රික්කය / පාසල in Sinhala
and in Thamil, added details printed in English.
Donation Statement :
යහපත් පුරවැසියන් වී යහපත් දේශයක් ගොඩ නගන්නට අපි ඔබට ශුභාශිංසනය කරන්නෙමු in Sinhala
and in Thamil which translates to We will wish you to become good citizens and build a good Nation..
Serial Number with Prefix :
වවුච්ර්‍ පත් අංකය in Singlish which changed in 2019 to
තිළිණපත් අංකය in Sinhala and in Thamil.
Expiry Date : කා. ඉ. දිනය in Sinhala and in Thamil.
Rupee Value :
රු in Sinhala
and in Thamil which translates to Rs on left of Numeric Value/=
The 2017 issues had value in words printed below in English.
Panel for Bank Endorsement :
බැංකු ගණුදෙනු සඳහා in Sinhala
and in Thamil which translates to For Bank Transactions.
This image of voucher for the 2016 school year from a media report is out of focus.
The text like in the white panel on top right is difficult to decipher.
The red panel on top extreame right has 1919 which is Government Information Hotline.
It has the names of Maithripala Sirisena, President; Ranil Wickremesinghe,
Prime Minister; and Akila Viraj Kariyawasam, Minister of Education
listed left-middle-right at the bottom in both in Sinhala and in Thamil.
The 2017 coupon shown below is almost a specimen including the
counterfoil and no name of school entered.
May have been given to merchant as a sample.
The voucher for the 2017 school year had in middle right the Political Panel.
Included only in 2017 a Small Blue Security box with statement to right
නිල් පැහැති කොටුව පිරිමදින්න. අවර්ණ වේ නම් වලංගු වවුචරයකි. (වෙළඳ මහතුන්ගෙ භාවිතයට පමණයි.) in Sinhala
and in Thamil which translates to
Rub the blue box. Valid voucher if it gets covered. (Only for merchants' use). Why was it abandoned?
It had an listed expiry date of 31-12-2016 or 31-03-2017
The voucher for the 2018 school year had same Political Panel as in
2017 but to middle left.
To right of panel was two pairs of logo's the first pair with
සුරකෂා සදා සුරකිමු දැයේ දරැවන් in Sinhala
and in Thamil
which translates to surakaShaa(Insurence) Grow and protect Children of the Nation.
and the second pair with
වෘත්තික ප්‍රවේශය /
පිරුණු හැකියාවක් දිනන රැකියාවක් in Sinhala
which translates to Professional approach on top and A job that wins full potential below.
It had an listed expiry date of 2017-12-31
The Yellow card-like paper has Blue and Yellow Florecent Fibers visible under UV illumination.
Regulations and denominations of issue for the 2018
School Uniform Voucher is given in PDF and
Shoe Voucher is given in PDF both in Sinhala.
The constitutional crisis
from 2018 October 26 to December 15 delayed the 2019 issue.
The voucher for the 2019 school year had same Political Panel as in 2018.
It had an listed expiry date of 2018-12-31. but issued after
2019-01-02 with validity set at 2019-04-30 and after the Easter Sunday
Bombing on April 21st was further extended till 2019-05-20.
The White paper has Yellow Florecent Fibers visible under UV illumination.
After Gotabaya Rajapaksa was elected President 2019 November and a new
SLPP cabinet was sworn in, the Education Ministry
announced
that School uniforms provided by beginning of 2020.
However being late in year to implement change a voucher was issued for 2020.
The voucher for the 2020 school year had a group picture of seven
school children three boys and four girls including Sinhala, Thamil
and Muslim children with a lion National flag at background in middle
left replacing the Political Panel.
It had an listed expiry date of 2020-01-31 which was extended to 2020-02-28
Click on each voucher image to see the back of Voucher which only has space for endorsements.
This web-page needs addition of some Sinhala (2016) and all Thamil Text on the Vouchers
If you have the 2003 or 2016 voucher please contribute 300 dpi scans of both sides
I thank Wassim Sattar for finding ma 2019 School Uniform Voucher.
I am interested buy or trade for 2003, and 2016 Vouchers of any value.
I have am extra 2018 Voucher to trade.
The Province/District/School which were printed in English have been erased to remove identity. Images at 300 dpi are displayed at 100 dpi
Please send me any corrections in the translations or comments. Email me at kavanr @ gmail.com or SMS me at +94775419494 or +94717072020
This Voucher system for School uniforms may get reintroduced for the 2024 School year according to EconomyNext Media report of 2022 August 23.