• Avg. score of a student for English is 34%, 24% for Maths

Students throughout the island perform poorly in English and Mathematics due to inconsistent education policies and the lack of funding, the Institute of Policy Studies (IPS) claimed.

“Even though children are going to school, they are not learning,” IPS Research Fellow Dr. Nisha Arunatilake claimed, speaking at a conference held yesterday (8). “The average child’s score for English in this country is 34% while the average score for Maths is 24%.”

A previous study by the IPS showed that urban schools outperform rural schools when it comes to English education, with several of the urban schools having both students who have a good proficiency in English and those who have limited exposure to English, thus presenting English teachers with a challenge on how to structure the curriculum.

Meanwhile, a report published by the World Bank (WB) shows that there is a disparity between urban and rural schools with regard to the mathematics performance in Sri Lanka, with urban schools performing better than rural schools. Meanwhile, the WB also states that mathematics and science at the General Certificate of Education Advanced Level was only available at approximately 600 schools as of 2018 data.

Dr. Arunatilake suggested that unequal funding is to blame for the poor performances in Maths and English with the majority of the funding going to ‘elite’ schools, while other schools lack resources such as adequate teachers and learning materials, This issue is compounded by the lack of education policy consistency across Governmental shifts. "We have had several Education Ministers with several different policies," Dr. Arunatilake said. "And, there has been a lack of consistency among these policies."

Dr. Arunatilake also said that a trend of female students outperforming their male counterparts has been noticed.

The Daily Morning’s efforts to contact the Ministry of Education proved futile.