• Entering 2024 with a healthier allocation of funds for a ‘knowledge-based economy’
• Education crisis comprises crisis of quality, access, equity, relevance, inclusion, funding
• Strengths include innately-intelligent student population and dedicated teachers
• Weaknesses include lack of coherent and realistic vision, mismanagement, corruption
• Opportunities include access to collaboration with agencies and development partners
• Threats include lack of commitment and courage to implement any good initiative
• Existing education system uninspiring and incapable of firing student imagination
• SL needs 40,000 students to graduate in IT and related disciplines annually to ‘leapfrog’
• Govt. needs to act with utmost speed to prevent student exodus, mitigate migration
• A regular supply of nutritious meals is almost a precondition for effective learning

The existing system of school and State university education is outdated and has ceased to be inspiring or capable of firing the imagination of students, asserted Education Forum Sri Lanka Co-Founder and a former Secretary to the Ministry of Education Dr. Tara de Mel, in an interview with The Sunday Morning.

“The system doesn’t adequately prepare students for newer jobs of the emerging decades of the 21st century. Nor does the system prepare young people to meet the existing challenges of society and to face the multi-dimensional crises that Sri Lanka continues to face,” she added.

While hailing the 2024 Budget’s ‘healthier’ allocation of funds for a ‘knowledge-based economy,’ she noted however that such an allocation would not mean much unless it was actually used for the development of physical and human resource infrastructure and intellectual capital at speed, in order to catch up on the multiple types of education losses Sri Lanka continued to face. 

Commenting on where Sri Lanka stands in terms of education and whether the future is bright or bleak, Dr. de Mel noted that realistically it would be difficult to predict a ‘bright’ future, given the yawning gaps in modernising curricula and pedagogy, deficiencies in high quality teacher education and professional development, the huge digital divide in terms of both devices and connectivity, poor management of schools, continuation of a highly-centralised approach of funding schools, lack of school-based teacher recruitment and transfers, and more. 

Speaking on the crisis in education in Sri Lanka, Dr. de Mel said it could be “summed up as a crisis of quality, a crisis of access, crisis of equity, crisis of relevance and inclusion – augmented by a huge crisis in funding,” adding that without addressing all of these crises, she doubted whether economic revival and sustainability of such a recovery would be possible.

Following are excerpts of the interview: 

With the end of a school year and the start of a new one almost upon us, where does Sri Lanka stand in terms of education? Is the future bright or bleak?

On the positive side, we enter 2024 with a healthier allocation of funds from the National Budget 2024 for a ‘knowledge-based economy,’ i.e. Rs. 532 billion. Even though this allocation is for school and university education, youth and sports, vocational education/training, science and technology, pirivena education, daham pasal, etc., it’s at least an indication that the Government recognises that a ‘knowledge-based economy’ is priority and comes next only to a ‘healthier society’. The latter has the highest budgetary allocation of Rs. 529 billion, which is good. 

I should also mention that the 2024 Budget has allocated much less than before (Rs. 386 billion) for national security; this is also a reversal of the trend we saw in 2023 and is a positive sign.

However, these allocations won’t mean much unless they are actually used for the development of physical and human resource infrastructure and intellectual capital at speed, in order to catch up on the multiple types of education losses we continue to face. 

A summary of such would be the yawning gaps in modernising curricula and pedagogy, deficiencies in high quality teacher education and professional development, the huge digital divide in terms of both devices and connectivity, poor management of schools, continuation of a highly-centralised approach of funding schools, lack of school-based teacher recruitment and transfers, and more. So, realistically, it would be difficult to predict a ‘bright’ future. 

Could you do a SWOT analysis of the sector?

S: Strengths in our systems are great, as in an innately-intelligent student population and the majority of teachers being dedicated and committed to giving the best to students, despite their paltry salaries. The existing systemic structure we have, as in education divisions (~326), zones (~100), provinces (9), and of course the Ministry of Education with its key institutions like the National Institute of Education (NIE), Educational Publications Department (EPD), and the Department of Examinations have ample resources to effectively implement any initiative with proper supervision.

W: Weaknesses in the system include lack of a coherent and realistic vision, mismanagement at every level, political meddling/interference top down, and tolerance of systemic corruption.

O: Opportunities are multiple, such as access to collaboration with agencies and development partners that can assist our system in developing modern curricula, enhancing capacity of teachers, partnering with agencies that can speed up the closure of the digital divide, using expat Sri Lankan scholars and academics to give back high quality education at school and university level, and more.

T: The biggest threats in my opinion are the lack of commitment and courage by the authorities to effectively roll out implementation of any good initiative. The reasons are probably a combination of political expediency and lack of capacity to execute any task successfully. 

How do the curricula need to change to stay up to date and relevant? Has there been any progress in terms of education reforms?

The existing system of school and State university education is outdated and has ceased to be inspiring or capable of firing the imagination of students. The system doesn’t adequately prepare students for newer jobs of the emerging decades of the 21st century. Nor does the system prepare young people to meet the existing challenges of society and to face the multi-dimensional crises that Sri Lanka continues to face.

Internationally, it is well known that the majority of jobs that will be available and in-demand in 2030 are not even known today. The World Economic Forum, the OECD, and similar agencies that regularly evaluate education needs and developments predict that the priority skill sets that will be sought after by employers in 2025 will include creative thinking, analytical thinking, collaboration, AI, and big data. 

A recent study (‘Current Challenges and Future Directions 2023’) has shown that the ‘skill gaps’ among young people in Sri Lanka include: technical skills and digital literacy, analytical and creative thinking, leadership skills, and communication and language (English) skills. Therefore, understanding and adapting to new skill-sets that are needed professionally, making learning student-centric, project-based, dynamic, inclusive, and collaborative, and allowing creativity to blossom are all essential, if Sri Lanka ever hopes to transcend the current economic and other multiple crises. 

If the recently-published National Education Policy Framework (2023-2033) is subject to a thorough discussion and implemented in full, there may be some hope, but we saw a similar document prepared in 2020 with no implementation.

Where do we stand now in terms of Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) education? 

In terms of STEM (or I’d rather speak of STEAM, which includes Arts), what I need to emphasise is the lack of universal access for all 4.2 million students across all nine provinces to good quality science and technology education. 

STEM access is still confined to a ‘few,’ since nearly 7,000 schools (out of some 10,100) don’t offer facilities for students to follow science, maths, and tech-related subjects at Advanced Levels. Indeed, only some 3,000 schools offer any form of A/L education.

Speaking to The Sunday Morning earlier in the year, you said that if Sri Lanka expects to leapfrog into an era where a digital revolution is to spearhead economic growth, large numbers of graduates and doctoral students specialising in AI and data science will be needed. Are any steps being taken in this regard? What needs to be done?

Not to my understanding. We still have only about 11,000 students graduating in IT and related disciplines annually, from both the public and private tertiary education institutions. I was told that we need about 40,000 at the very least, if Sri Lanka ever hopes to ‘leapfrog’! 

With the current escalating migration trend, even those qualified and experienced as IT/AI/tech graduates are leaving our shores. The Government needs to act with utmost speed to prevent this exodus and come up with a plan to mitigate migration and prevent the same. 

Such a plan needs to include elements that will inspire and encourage young people to remain in Sri Lanka, give them hope, and address the frustrations and disappointments they have. The British Government recently announced such a plan in the House of Commons.

Given the rising cost of living, more children are dropping out of school while malnutrition is on the rise. How should this be addressed?

When the economic crisis was at its peak in 2022, it was estimated that nearly 35-40% of school children were malnourished. Today I am told that figure is much higher. Paediatricians and nutritionists generally agree that a regular supply of nutritious meals is almost a precondition for effective learning, particularly in students during their formative years. 

Globally, it is well known that offering free school meals is a definite way of attracting children to school, even in middle (or upper) income countries. When Sri Lanka is still grappling with multiple crises, and when kids are dropping out of school due to lack of good quality education, insufficient teachers, uninspiring classroom education, and more, the least we can do is to implement a solid plan to offer a nutritious midday meal, cooked by the parents, within the school premises. There are plenty of success stories on how this can be done.

Have any lessons been learned from Covid closures? And does Sri Lanka have an emergency education plan in place even now, given the Covid experience and massive learning loss?

I seriously don’t think so. Despite the Ministry of Education study published in 2023, which revealed that less than 8% of Grade 3 students had unacceptable learning outcomes in literacy and numeracy, I doubt if serious attempts are underway to address this learning crisis.

Most countries, even those in the Global South, have by now commenced implementing plans for catch-up learning and students are beginning to fall into track – more so in more developed countries. We never know when we will be hit by the next pandemic or any other issue that would once again impede learning. 

To sum up, I think the ‘crisis in education’ in this country can be summed up as a crisis of quality, a crisis of access, crisis of equity, crisis of relevance and inclusion – augmented by a huge crisis in funding. Without addressing all of these crises, I doubt if economic revival and sustainability of such a recovery will be possible without the necessary human resources capital that an excellent education system will create.