Policies for growth

The common view is that education and healthcare outcomes are more likely to take place when there are more funds available. But the Southern Province has managed to outperform the more prosperous Western Province, showing that policies can bring results even when there are moderate resources.  

The data is included in the latest World Bank Human Capital Development report launched recently. The Southern Province, despite having a much lower GDP than the Western Province, has managed to score higher than the latter, which is commonly considered to have the best educational outcomes in Sri Lanka as it is also the wealthiest. 

The Western Province, according to the latest Central Bank data, contributes 38.5% of Sri Lanka’s GDP while the Southern Province only contributes about 10% but the latest World Bank report shows that despite this significant gap the Southern Province has been successful in better educational outcomes because it has found solutions to teacher shortages and attracted teachers to underserved Tamil medium schools.  

Analysts have pointed out that the data provides encouragement to policymakers at the provincial level because it shows that financial wealth is not necessarily the most important factor when it comes to improving education outcomes and bettering healthcare but rather targeted policies that are well implemented. 

When GDP numbers and human capital index scores are compared, it becomes evident that even though the Central Province in 2018 contributed 11.8% of Sri Lanka’s GDP, slowing slightly from 12.1% the previous year, it only lands in seventh place among all nine provinces for per capita health spending and retains the same place for per student education spending. The Sabaragamuwa, North Western, North Central and Uva provinces all pose higher scores than the Central Province even though their GDP numbers are much less impressive.

Sri Lanka performs only moderately well on an overall score of 58% in the Human Capital Index (HCI) and has a ranking of 74 out of 157 countries. This means that children born in Sri Lanka today will be 58% as productive in adulthood compared to their full potential. In contrast, children born in the top-performing countries can expect to achieve much higher levels of human capital. 

Children born in Singapore can expect to achieve 88% of their potential, Japan and South Korea 84% and Hong Kong and China 82%. Even though Sri Lanka is the best performing country in South Asia, it lags behind East Asian countries such as China, Malaysia, Mongolia, Thailand and Vietnam. 

Sri Lanka performs well in some components of the HCI but performs less well in others. Sri Lanka does well on the probability of children surviving to age five, with 99% of children reaching this age. This is equal to the probability of child survival in high-income countries. Sri Lanka also records a strong performance in schooling years with an average of 13 years, which is also on par with high-income countries, but the quality of education remains low, with a child in Singapore learning the same amount as a Sri Lankan child in just eight years. 

The data shows that policymakers and policymaking creates a huge difference in how citizens are supported from birth and what they eventually grow up to be. The regions outside the Western Province are important and it is possible to reach them with the right policies. Regional equity is important for Sri Lanka as it looks to promote growth as an upper middle income country.