Whither Sri Lanka’s education system?

By Zahara Zuhair
Getting rid of colonial education methods such as the examination-oriented teaching process and colonial education law— as independent Sri Lanka still does not have an education law— were highlighted at a recent forum organised by the Institute of Policy Studies (IPS) in Colombo.

The exam-oriented teaching process is a colonial method that was adopted from the United Kingdom (UK). It was pointed out that it is neither practical nor meaningful in the current context, where a student has to memorise the syllabus and then he/she could predict the exam paper questions, which would ultimately result in limiting their thinking capabilities. 

As grades matter in an examination-oriented system, what Sri Lanka needs as suggested by many present at the forum was an education system that nurtures creative thinking, which will generate new ideas that would help the growth the country and its economy. 

IPS Executive Director Dushni Weerakoon said that educational reforms are a priority for Sri Lanka as labour productivity is the key to ensuring the country’s growth.  

While many institutions including the National Education Commission (NEC) have been stressing on educational reforms that would suit the Sri Lankan system over the years, the proposals they have presented are yet to be approved by the policymakers.

The forum also shed light on the other issues Sri Lanka’s current education system is facing.

Adopting digitizing education 
As adopting technology was noted as an important factor, also suggested was to have an education system that would encompass artificial intelligence (AI) and automation. 

“We have to get rid of the word of the teacher; teachers’ quality should be improved. Text book curriculum is not the curriculum today; this is the 1950-60 module. We shouldn’t continue with this. Learning could happen anywhere in any way. Today, the Internet is accessible to anyone, anywhere,” Education Sector Specialist Dr. Upali M. Sedere said.

NEC Vice Chairman Dr. G.B. Gunawardena said that the biggest issue the ICT education facing is the shortage of ICT teachers. One of the reasons cited was the low salaries paid. 

“ICT was introduced without having teachers. What happened was computers were in the room locked and there were no teachers. It has to start with the preparation of teachers,” he said. 

Lack of availability of teacher training opportunities is also an issue faced by the ICT teachers and seminars. Forums can be organised to address this issue. 

The government has already initiated concepts such as smart classroom in their digitization drive together with the development of e-books. 

Reducing disparities in access to quality education 
Meanwhile, improving equity in terms of infrastructure, resources and manpower, was also stressed as it is important to decrease disparities in access to quality education. The participants said that the teacher quality should be improved and better facilities should be given to classrooms. 

Unequal distribution of resources was also an issue that was discussed as some schools get better resources while others receive substandard or no resources. 

According to the statistics that were shared, 60 percent of the children who sit for examinations pass both GCE O/Levels and A/Levels in the richest decile, compared to only 20 percent of children in the poorest decile. 

It was noted that the distribution of physical and teacher resources is highly skewed towards privileged schools, including national and 1 AB schools. 

Improving educational outcomes 
During the discussion, another aspect highlighted was making career guidance available at school level. 

There should be a way to guide the students where they could switch to other careers when they lose passion in what they already do. For that, having the importance of islandwide youth centres was suggested. 

Sri Lanka is poised to have a knowledge-based and job-oriented education system in the future through the implementation of advanced education methods applying to the local context, according to the Education Ministry. 

Changing Sri Lanka’s education and training system to meet the skills demanded in the labour market also was stressed. 

The researchers showed that only 32 percent of Arts stream graduates are employed although 55 percent of total undergraduate enrolment is in the Arts, Law, Management and Commerce streams.
Meanwhile, over 90 percent of Engineering, Medicine and IT graduates and 71 percent of Science graduates are employed; they account for only 28 percent of university enrolments. 

Further, it was noted that 32.5 percent of first-time job seekers coming from university or other higher education institutions are poorly prepared, primarily due to lack of job-specific required skills or competencies as well as soft skills. 

It was suggested to introduce more extracurricular activities into the current school curricula as evidence shows that book knowledge is not at all adequate.

Other suggestions made during the discussion were: introduction of student counsellors to schools, a system to measure student achievements, vocational education and recruitment of qualified teachers.

Other challenges 
Dr. Sedere also highlighted the need to safeguard the country’s education system from politics.
“It is a huge threat we have. Our education system has been destroyed by the politics, of course it was the politicians who built it for us also; we say C.W.W. Kannangara is the father of education,” he said. 

Another aspect pointed out was Sri Lanka not having a long-term plan for education.
Although Sri Lanka has the best in primary education in South Asia, it is the lowest achieving country in higher education in the region. The reason cited for the absence of a long-term agreed plan was politics and bureaucracy.

The IPS had revealed recently that a significant policy gap exists when it comes to secondary and tertiary education in Sri Lanka. It indicated that only 35 percent of the age 15 years and above population have completed upper-secondary education in Sri Lanka and only 13.3 percent have completed tertiary education.  

The lack of coordination between national and provincial levels in terms of execution of educational policies was also noted. 

“Nobody knows who is appointing teachers. If you ask the ministry how many teachers are appointed, nobody knows,” Dr. Gunawardena said.