Sri Lanka cancels exams due to shortage of paper
Colombo: Cash-strapped Sri Lanka has cancelled exams for millions of school students across the country following an acute shortage of paper. The island nation is short on dollars to finance imports.
According to reports, the move could effectively hold up tests for around two-thirds of the country's 4.5 million students.
Sri Lanka's foreign currency reserves stood about $2.3 billion at the end of February against $6.9 billion in debt. The country is grappling with its worst financial crisis since independence in 1948.
The cash-strapped South Asian nation of 22 million announced this week that it will seek an IMF bailout to resolve its worsening foreign debt crisis and shore up external reserves.
President Gotabaya Rajapaksa has requested The International Monetary Fund to discuss a bailout.
