Sugath Kulatunga

Sri Lanka does not possess an abundance of physical resources for large-scale industrial development but is blessed with ample human resources. It is on this comparative advantage that the country has to develop its economy. Education is the driving force with which the optimal benefit could be derived from this rare advantage and is the key to developing competitiveness and excellence. High-performing countries in the Far East considered relevant education as the foundation of economic development and social advancement. They focused on developing human capital in science and technology and vocational skills as they are pivotal to economic development. Taiwan and South Korea were both agricultural economies like Sri Lanka in early 1980 with low per capita earnings.

Taiwan is an Island smaller than Sri Lanka with a similar population. Before the 1980s it was a predominantly agricultural economy. Today it is a high-tech powerhouse leading the world in a number of high-tech industries. It has a per capita income of 36, 000 dollars. At the beginning of the 1980s, Taiwan increased the ratio for senior vocational schools and general high school to 7:3. By 2012 there were 155 senior vocational schools, 14 junior colleges, and 77 universities/colleges of science & technology, totaling 246. It is the education system that has sustained the significant development of this small nation.

In just a few decades, South Korea has transformed itself from an underdeveloped nation to an industrialized country exporting high-technology products (Domjahn 2013, p. 16). Much of this development has been attributed to improvements in the country’s education system. Various South Korean and international scholars (Ellinger and Beckham 1997; Han 1994; Kim 2000) have credited the nation’s economic success to an efficient education system that provides the quality workforce necessary for economic expansion. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/284831895 

In both these countries Education policies are aligned with market needs. In Taiwan education policy is geared to future needs as well. Taiwan goes to the extent of identifying emerging technologies and adopt policies and systems to meet the human capital needs to serve those technologies. There is strong orientation among South Korea’s growth strategy, labor market needs, and education policies. Every 5 years, the Ministry of Education, Science, and Technology updates and improves the national curriculum, taking into account changes in the economic and national conditions (Severin and Capota 2011,)

In Sri Lanka the 1944 the Kannangara education reform was a landmark event in education policy in the country. It was radical and futuristic. Other than ‘free education from preschool to University ‘ Kannangara Committee proposed: –

• Establishing three types of schools – Secondary, Senior, and Practical Schools,
• Introducing Vernacular medium of instruction at Primary level and bilingual or English,
•  Medium schools for Junior Secondary level and English schools for Senior Secondary and higher education.

The Committee believed that although the educational system should be closely related to the present needs and conditions it has also to be planned with due regard to all possible lines which future development is likely to take. The development of education must not only keep pace with a country’s advance but should definitely contribute to accelerating the pace of the advance.”

But in the implementation and subsequent years the need for education policy to be attuned to future needs was ignored. The concept of Practical Schools was not pursued seriously. It was limited to Farm Schools and Technical colleges. Even one of the prominent members of the Committee Sir Ivor Jennings had doubts about the country needing large number ie. 15 % of Schools leavers every year with commercial and technical qualifications. He did not see no evidence that the Island is likely to be able to absorb even half that number.

The result was that the SL school education system became ‘tutories’ preparing students for examinations based on the British system. The Universities too concentrated on general education producing large number of unemployable graduates. The proposal of Kannangara Committee for English schools for Senior Secondary and higher education was submerged with the diehard stance of Sinhala only. It is satisfying to note that a new policy decision has been made to introduce English as a subject from Grade one. It is also necessary that higher education is in English. The ‘Kauwa” should be restored to benefit from the global development of information technology and other technologies like AI.

An attempt to introduce an element of practical education in the form of the NCGE for School leavers during the government of Mrs. Bandaranayake was scrapped by the next government falling back on the SSC. While SL deliberately ignored technical education with independence India established in 1950 five Institutes of Technology (IITs) in the main States of the country. These IITs were modeled on the best example of higher technical education from Germany, Russia, the United Kingdom, and the United States. The have been the cutting edge of technology development in India and are highly recognized internationally. Many of the CEOs of leading high-tech firms Google, Infosys and IBM are alumni of the Indian IIts. It is high time that SL establishes an Institute of Technology in collaboration with one of the Indian IITs.

An education policy not aligned with technology and industrial policies of the country would be irrelevant, unimportant and an expensive luxury. It creates more problems of unemployment, dissatisfaction and social disharmony than positive outcomes. It is not surprising that there is no coherence among these policies as Sri Lanka does not have an Industrial Policy or a Technology Policy. An integrated policy package of these three vital policies is the vital need of SL at this moment.

Sugath Kulatunga