The Shortcomings of the Sri Lankan Education System
- ricrotaract
- Jan 11, 2021
- 3 min read
Updated: Feb 8, 2021
The free education policy was implemented in Sri Lanka in 1947, under the guidance of the remarkable personality Mr. C. W. W. Kannangara. The Sri Lankan literacy rate in recent years have stood at around 92%, above the global average of 86.5% whilst the youth literacy rate stood at a highly commendable 98.8% which are both outstanding achievements given that Sri Lanka is a developing country. The country spends around 2 – 4% of its annual GDP on education which has resulted in an improvement in literacy and school enrolment in both males as well as females over the years. The general education system in Sri Lanka provides 13 years of schooling in 3 cycles. Public schools in Sri Lanka are all state funded and is offered free of charge. This includes the provision of free textbooks for students from grade 1-11, free uniform material and free examinations mainly comprised of the grade 5 scholarships, G.C.E. Ordinary Level and G.C.E Advanced level. In Sri Lanka, it is mandatory for children under the age of 14 years to attend school.
The female attendance rate is higher than the male attendance rate at the secondary level. Generally, males drop out of school before females, seeking employment. This is a major issue in Sri Lanka as some children are obligated to provide for their families from a young age. However, it is worthy to note that Sri Lanka makes a satisfactory contribution to the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goal of gender equality, in the education sector by eliminating gender based discrimination in enrolment in education in primary, secondary and tertiary education. This is a perquisite of the free education policy implemented in the country and made available to all citizens over many decades.
Nonetheless, the present education system faces several key challenges. There is a distinct mismatch between the skills of workers and the existing labour market demands, due to which high youth unemployment is persistent across the country. A decreasing trend in the quality of education is visible due to a lack of proper training for schoolteachers and inefficiencies in administration.
Despite the high literacy rate in Sri Lanka, many children have refrained from attending schools partially or completely due to the lack of basic needs, due to which there is a high dropout rate and poor attendance especially in secondary and tertiary levels. There is also an unequal distribution of resources between different schools in rural and urban areas which results in different competencies in the children’s education. Although there are 15 public universities which are state funded only a handful of students obtain admission due to the high competitiveness of exams, which are meant to filter out the brightest students. Compared to many other developing countries the number of students enrolled in tertiary education is extremely low in Sri Lanka at only 21.1% whilst the global average stands at a significantly higher rate at 38.8%. Those who are not eligible for university entrance have limited opportunity to receive a university education unless they are affluent. There are close to 30 other degree awarding institutes currently functioning in the country that have been officially recognised by the university grants commission, however access to these are limited to only those who can afford it.
Due to certain systemic flaws in education in the country, thousands of young individuals have missed out on receiving a higher education. Even though individuals have completed school and are academically educated they would not be able to fit into the labour market due to a lack of specific job skills required.
2020 in particular has seen several challenges faced by the education system and students with the Covid-19 pandemic causing postponement of O Levels, A Levels’ and university exams as well as interruption to classes. The postponement of A Levels’ has disrupted the process of new enrolment in university, both public and private. Furthermore, final year university students have been adversely affected since many students who expected to join work after their final exams were not able to, due to their exams being delayed. This includes two reasons; one being that students are unable to join work until they conclude their university education and the second being that most private employers have stopped hiring. Consequently, even graduates who are in search of work are unable to find work.
In light of the pandemic, most public and private schools and universities have turned to conducting online lessons. However, this is unavailing because many students especially in public education, lack access to a computer and or the internet. According to data released by the Census and Statistics department, in 2019, only 22% of households in Sri Lanka owned a laptop. Further, less than half the population of the country has access to the internet. This reveals significant inequity when choosing to conduct lessons online either at a school or university level.
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By: RIC Rotaract Blog Team
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