65-pct of Sri Lanka state workers do not have A-Levels. “Also the politicians who rule the country “ ??
Posted on July 11th, 2018
Dr Sarath Obeysekera
ECONOMYNEXT – Less than seven percent of Sri Lanka’s 1.1 million public sector workforce have university degrees in commerce, management or science related areas, while 35 percent passed their A Levels, the government census and statistics office said.
The Department of Census and Statics on Tuesday released the final report on the Public and Semi-Government Sector Employment Census conducted in 2016.
“One in four of public sector employees hold degrees. Of the roughly 290,000 degree holders, more than half have arts degrees, while 14 percent have obtained degrees in management or commerce related fields and 10 percent in science,” the census and statistics office said in a statement.
Only 35 percent had passed high-school, or the GCE Advanced Level Examination.
The census excluded uniformed staff of the army, navy and air force.
Of the 1.1 million public sector workers, 65 percent are employed by the central government.
Female employment overall was at 45 percent: a low 36 percent in central government but a higher 62 percent representation at provincial and local government level.
Sri Lanka’s graduates are also a net burden on society, who seek state jobs with tax payers, who have already funded their degrees being forced to pay lifetime salaries and pensions critics have said. (COLOMBO, 11 July, 2018)
Unless Sri Lankan government changes the policies to impose a rule regarding qualifications of politicians when they place deposits to contest elections to demand that contestants should possess qualification with higher education .
We have seen news item just after the local council elections where some three wheeler drivers. Fish mongers .grass cutters and natami’s have contested and selected as members of the council. Obviously these law makers at lower level tend to employ their own kith and kins who have no education to public sector using their influence .
First of all we need to have new rules in the country to impose on three wheeler drivers to have at least A level qualification and knowledge in English.
I am sure when they are forced to pass such examination, they will find it difficult to pass .
They may give up being three where drivers and move to skill /unskilled labour jobs.
We also need to have labour rules and minimum salary scale of labour so that they are enticed to work as labourers than three wheeler drivers,
As Sri Lanka has a high shortage of labourers ,and most of the construction companies tend to bring people from their countries such as China .Our labour force can fill the gap .
Prime Minister and some Harward Educated /trained ministers keep talking about higher growth rates and future prosperity, but none of them have any idea about changing grass root level policies .
In our trade of ship building and repair industry skilled labourers can earn over 100,000 rupees in equivalent of $600 ,which is the same salary paid in middle east
With an advantage of being with family they may opt to stay in Sri Lanka and work .This is another solution to solve problems among Sri Lankan Families where family relationship are strained due to bread earners leaving the country leaving wife and children at home .
In the future there should be a minimum education qualification level for any job in government sector .
New Item in India
PhD holders among 23 lakh applicants for peon jobs in UP INDIA
Graduates, post graduates and even Phd holders are among the 23 lakh applicants vying for the post of a peon in Uttar Pradesh government secretariat.
Graduates, postgraduates and even PhD holders are among the 23 lakh people who responded to an advertisement seeking applications for 368 posts of peons in the Uttar Pradesh government secretariat.
The response has been a record of sorts, with more than 150,000 applications sent in by graduates and 24,969 by postgraduates. There were also more than 250 doctorates among the applicants, officials said.
Aren’t we lucky ??
July 11th, 2018 at 3:53 pm
Sarath
65-pct of Sri Lanka state workers do not have A-Levels. So What?
In order to become a successful business man, or a company executive or a skilled worker or even a politician you don’t have to have an A level pass. It does not reflect some one’s IQ level.
Take for example Steve Jobs who pioneered Apple Computer system did not study up to advance level or equivalent in America. Same way Richard Branson who owns Virgin Air and many Virgin businesses in UK does not have even O level.
D.S.Senanayake the first prime minister in Sri Lanka even though he attended the prestigious Anglican school S. Thomas’ College, Mutwal. Never a studious student even without completing school leaver’s matriculation examination (similar to O level) he took up a job as a clerk in the Surveyor General’s Department, but left after a period of apprenticing. Later He joined his brother D. C. Senanayake in running his fathers extensive business holdings.
So don’t think that we need an advanced level certificate to get a skill training position. Instead they should have an IQ test to select the best candidate.
July 11th, 2018 at 4:33 pm
Even Albert Einstein would have failed A-levels if he sat that exam in Sri Lanka.
July 11th, 2018 at 4:51 pm
Sri Lanka Labor Demand Survey 2017 identifies occupations demanded by private sector
Wed, Jul 11, 2018, 12:11 pm SL Time, ColomboPage News Desk, Sri Lanka.
July 11, Colombo: On a request by the Policy Development Office of The Prime Minister’s Office Sri Lanka’s Department of Census and Statistics (DCS) has conducted the first ever survey on the labor demand in the country in 2017.
The island wide survey supported by the International Labor Organization (ILO) aimed to identify the demand for employment requiring different skills and formulate appropriate policies related to education and vocational training in the country.
The survey covered a sample of 3500 establishments covering the entire country. All the establishments and enterprises with more than 3 employees in the private sector was considered as the targeted population of the survey.
The main objective of this survey was to identify the occupations which are highly demanded by the private sector of the country and to estimate the demand in numbers. Apart from that it included the data regarding current employment profile, challenges of working with newly hired employees, the number of vacancies at present and expected number of vacancies to be filled within the next twelve months in the country.
With regards to this labor demand survey, a Data Dissemination Workshop was held on 29th June 2018 at the Department of Census and Statistics with the participation of number of important stakeholders in Sri Lanka, the Policy Development Office said.
Through this workshop DCS explained how those national statistics in labor demand are significant to the employers, decision makers and the national policy makers and how these statistics can be used to reduce the gap between demand of labor and supply of labor.
Currently, many steps are being taken to inform the significance of this survey to the Ministry of Education and The Committee of Technical, Vocational and Educational, Training (TVET) with the intervention of The Policy Development Office of The Prime Minister’s Office.
The full report of the survey is available at DCS website.
http://www.statistics.gov.lk/industry/Labour_Demand_Survey_2017_Report.pdf
July 11th, 2018 at 5:12 pm
I agree with Neela.
Education level is unimportant for success although it certainly is helpful. Highly educated crooks have costed the nation more than uneducated ones (apart from the war).
Sri Lanka must restructure its education system to support the economy. Stop teaching Tamil Nadu language to Sinhala students and teach them more English and Korean, Mandarin or German instead. Students should be split out into study streams in Year 9, not in Year 11. More importantly, invest more in uplifting relevent income earning skills of adults to hell with their education level. Otherwise our education system will be even more irrelevent.
July 12th, 2018 at 6:20 am
Oh my gods I mean Indian ones.
What are the qualifications of our leading Indian Colonial Parasite business starters.
They came here without any qualifications or money scrubbing the deck or shoveling coal to fire the steam engines.
Make English the medium of instruction.
Develop physical. trade and academic skills of children.
July 12th, 2018 at 11:10 am
Fully agree with Neela’s and Christie’s point of views: It is absolutely not necessary to have a degree or A’levels to be successful in businesses.
Those who are successful today in SL are not those who have MBA etc., but many are those who have swum across the 17km water divide or the ones who did some jugglery with those in power. In the country where I work a person who came as a boy to make tea in a restaurant today owns a chain of supermarkets. Another company owner who does construction work on many large projects was an illiterate excavator operator. They both got there by hard work and not by any crooked means. Those successful ones knew how best to get well qualified people to do their work with the lowest pay.
However much the government try to convince the citizens to engage in businesses with expensive media campaigns it will only be an eye wash as long as they allow the unscrupulous men to import every thing under the sun. Even a pin is imported from China as perhaps a commission is going to the person who gives approval.
The other day I was watching a video by a Sri Lankan industrialist who has perfected the art of making the electronic control unit for the airbag in many expensive motor car brands including Toyota, Mercs and BMW. He must have probably found the correct logical function for his circuit as well as error trapping and certainly not due to a high quality that can be attained in manual production. He says the probability of his system failing is less than one in a million and at the moment he has five factories This is a very good achievement for a Sri Lankan and to the country which import every thing including pins
Steve Jobs was a Hardware man. For him to develop their own operating system for Apple means that he must have had a good knowledge of software as well. For someone who did not have a good education was able to do such things means that what is involved in this business is not all that complex. What is required to my mind is a knowledge of the evolution of various standard chips (ICs) by various companies like IBM, Motorola and many other players. Our A level students should be given a basic knowledge of logic gates that produce 0s and 1s and grouping them to form functions that control circuits.
I have seen videos this sort of things taught to chines students and how they connect the PCBs(printed circuit boards) with these ICs using standard connectors to make elementary robotic arms. This is an area GOSL should look at seriously if they want to put the country in the world map as a technologically advanced country.