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Education is an investment for the future

18 Sep 2022

Last week, I was invited for a panel discussion by one of Sri Lanka’s leading stationery manufacturers. This was for an initiative to support 100,000 families with children who are facing hardship due to the current economic crisis.  According to their data, 50% of Sri Lanka’s families are struggling to support their children’s education. High inflation was mentioned as one of the primary reasons for this hardship, especially as more than 60% of what people earn has to be spent on basics such as food, so the amount available for spending on education is shrinking. Unlike other crises, economic crises are worse because they disrupt society. Inflation is not what the Central Bank says nor what Prof. Steve Hanke updates in the form of numbers.  It is people’s pain, sorrow, emotion, and helplessness. Eighty-page exercise books have increased from Rs. 75 to Rs. 100, while 120-page books have increased from Rs. 120 to Rs. 225.    The plight of parents   If you recall Sri Lanka’s World Champion Toastmaster Dananjaya Hettiarachchi’s winning speech, he said that mothers have three types of tears – tears of joy, tears of sorrow, and tears of shame. There cannot be any sorrow or shame for a mother other than the inability to educate her loving children. Education is basically the insurance policy for most poor parents to overcome poverty during the later stage of their lives, especially in the Sri Lankan context. In Lebanon, the protein intake has dropped by half and 35% of Lebanon’s two million student population has dropped out of school due to the current economic crisis. As a result, the World Human Capital Index (2020) has projected that children born in Lebanon will only have 52% productivity.  Since Sri Lanka is on the same trajectory as Lebanon, it is very unlikely that we will deviate too far from Lebanon’s fate. The impact of an economic crisis is beyond fuel queues and LP Gas lines. The impact can run longer for generations. As Prof. Ricardo Hausmann from the Harvard Kennedy School mentioned: “Economic crisis is the same as a civil war.”   Upskilling the labour force   Sri Lanka has to be prepared to overcome this productivity deficit by reskilling and upskilling people.  Sri Lanka keeps bragging about its skilled labour force and service exports of the IT (Information Technology) sector. This is an industry that is already affected, especially with many such skilled individuals migrating in search of greener pastures. Unskilled labour remains behind, simply because they can’t afford to leave or they are not skilled enough to leave. Some are unskilled not due to any fault of their own, but due to economic conditions and flaws in the education system.  Even though Sri Lanka is progressing somewhat towards economic reforms, we will experience a skilled labour shortage after a few years. When labour is in short supply, investors won’t consider us as an option and we will become uncompetitive.  Existing businesses will be further impacted and recovery will be a challenge.     What we can do   Reskilling and upskilling our labour force is not just a function of formal education. It is mainly a function of working with co-skilled workers. For example, someone who works in a pizza restaurant has a higher chance of coming up with their own pizza recipe than someone who is simply taking a degree in pizza-making.  Similarly, someone who practises and bowls with Lasith Malinga will bowl better yorkers than someone who simply watches Malinga bowling or someone who takes a theory course on bowling in cricket.  We have to revamp our labour regulations allowing foreign workers to come and work in Sri Lanka, especially for skilled job categories. This is one way we can attract investors. Not only will it attract investors, but it will also re-skill and upskill our own people through on-the-job training. We have to allow labour markets to work in a way where hiring and firing become easy.  If the Government cannot spend money on education and if it is too late to contain inflation, then the least it can do is to change the archaic labour laws which have rendered Sri Lanka uncompetitive.  While the support and the initiatives by the private sector in uplifting education are welcome, there is quite a lot that can be done with just a stroke of a pen, which would have a very high impact at the same time. We need to implement reforms to survive this education crisis which has been triggered as a result of the economic crisis.   


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