What questions need to be asked on education?

According to Education Minister Susil Premajayantha, the knowledgeable people resources of Sri Lanka that are dispersed throughout the world should be called back. While Sri Lanka is for example now losing doctors as many leave for the Middle East and Western nations, it is a fair economic trade for more prospects, where they previously lost access to basic medical treatments when their country fell into a financial crisis earlier this year. 

At least 500 doctors from State medical institutions and 100 more doctors working in the private sectors have migrated abroad in the first eight months of 2022 according to the Sri Lanka Medical Association, including 25% of the specialists treating kidney diseases. Moreover, those who travelled for training and have not returned have are yet to be counted for, meaning that these numbers are the best-case scenario. 

In order to produce the skills necessary for high-paying jobs in an expanding economy, many express that Sri Lanka should revaluate whether tertiary education should be tax free and whether the private sector should be allowed to participate more actively in this sector by facilitating investments for significant reforms. 

The lack of proposals in Budget 2023 that would raise capital per worker in order to boost factor endowment is also a cause for concern. Sri Lanka must continue to ensure that its labour force is adequately skilled and reskilled to keep up with the technological, digital and scientific breakthroughs occurring at such a rapid rate around the world if it wants to remain relevant and competitive, as seen in the “Fourth Industrial Revolution”.

However, the populace seems trapped in the past. The question of whether Sri Lankan female teachers should wear sarees in the classrooms and what colour sarees they should wear continues to divide the country’s citizens, whereas more pressing issues need to be addressed. Whether Sri Lanka should start charging for tertiary education given the talent gap that is afflicting the nation’s economy, fiscal issues that have limited what the Government could actually spend on education and the kinds of different funding mix to be explored needs to be considered. 

The public sector cannot continue to subsidise higher education because they lack the resources to do so. We are still offering free and heavily subsidised higher education. Should we start charging for testing at the higher education level and should investments from the private sector be allowed in higher education at all? 

These questions need to be given importance because young people will be able to receive the education they desire inside rather than constantly seeking outside, as once they leave overseas, they never come back, according to one economist.

The leftist political parties and student organisations that are associated with them in Sri Lanka, however, passionately oppose any kind of educational reform, arguing that the Government is attempting to privatise the nation’s free education system. 

However, due to Sri Lanka’s declining labour force, productivity must be raised in order to attain targeted economic results. Nevertheless, the onerous labour regulations impede people from finding and maintaining formal jobs, depriving them of the on-the-job training necessary to advance essential skills and social protection. With people escaping the hyperinflationary pricing, rolling power outages and shortages of basic necessities, Sri Lanka is currently experiencing its largest exodus of talent in all spheres of life, which significantly reduces the size of the labour force. The budget for labour market reforms falls short of what is needed to entice people into the labour force and lacks implementation to result in substantial change.