by Thanuri Jayodya
Published on Ceylon Today on 09th April 2024.
Renowned scholar John Dewey says, “Education is all one with growing; it has no end beyond itself.” In line with his definition, it is visible to all of us that acquiring knowledge is essential for development and it has no marked final destination. In today’s world, education is recognised as a fundamental human right. But unfortunately, education is not distributed equally among everyone around the world. This situation is driving some places of the world into miserable positions. In spite of this, we must transform our world into a wonderful place where everyone gets equal education facilities.
According to the Human Development Index (HDI) which was developed by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) to measure and rank countries’ overall development, there are three key dimensions of human well-being. These can be named as a long and healthy life, knowledge and a decent standard of living. The dimension index of knowledge is education and indicators of it are expected years of schooling and mean years of schooling. (UNDP 2021).
The concept “Expected years of schooling” simply means how many years a child of school entrance age is expected to spend at school (“Expected Years of Schooling – Metadata – Subnational HDI – Global Data Lab,” n.d.) and the concept “Mean years of schooling” shows the average number of completed years of education of a county’s population throughout a decided age period (World Economics 2023). The length of schooling directly influences the key development indicators of a country through economic development, social development, quality of life, health, and innovation and technology. According to the HDI values of 2022, Sri Lanka’s Expected years of schooling are 13.6 years and the Mean years of schooling are 11.2 years. (UNDP 2021). The statistics show that there is a noticeable gap in indicators of education which highlights the need for further development of Sri Lanka’s education system. Additionally, the country’s literacy rate in 2020 which was 92.38 per cent (“Sri Lanka Literacy Rate 1981-2024,” n.d.) also confirms the fact.
Why does education hold so much importance?
Education is a process which carries a significant importance in human life. When discussing the value of education in the face of all obstacles, it is undoubtedly one of the most important factors in the survival and development of all aspects – social, economic and political.
Education rewards us with confidence, stability, and independence, and builds creativity. Furthermore, it promotes responsible citizenship, economic advancement, national interest, poverty reduction, resolutions for disputes, and ethical and moral development. Altogether, education upholds every individual, community, and State. Even international organisations such as the United Nations and the European Union prioritise the development of education because of its ability to create a better world with peace. The United Nations considers education as a Sustainable Development Goal and they describe it as “quality education” aiming to ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote life-long learning opportunities for all (“Education / Department of Economic and Social Affairs,” n.d.).
Education system of Sri Lanka
Sri Lanka has a free education system that falls under the following circular which states that every child must get a school education compulsorily in Section 12, Part I of the Secretary to the Ministry of Education’s Circular No. ED/1/12/2/6/1 dated 2004/05. (“Human Rights Commission of Sri Lanka: Human Rights Education in Schools Mandate – Shirani Rajapaksa,” n.d.)
According to this, primary and secondary education in Sri Lanka is free for all students from year one to twelve. Additionally, the Government also provides free tertiary education to a number of students through universities and vocational institutions. Furthermore, the private universities, Pirivena, and Dhamma schools are also considered as the strengths of the education system. It is necessary to mention that during the school years, every child in Sri Lanka has access to free uniform material, free textbooks, facilities to learn more languages, laboratory facilities, computer facilities, play areas, training in sports and so forth. Other than these facilities, the Government has implemented measures to offer free meals to schoolchildren. Additionally, the Government is actively engaged in establishing new facilities related to Artificial Intelligence which signifies a further enhancement in education trends.
Despite all these valuable facilities, according to the earlier mentioned statistics of the latest HDI of 2022 and the literacy rate of 2020, there are still children who lack access to education in Sri Lanka. The reasons for this are numerous and to address all these challenges, collective efforts from both individuals and the Government are needed. Among these, Sri Lanka’s theory-based education system which slows down the progress of the education process by impacting both students’ and teachers’ mentality poses a major challenge.
What prevents Sri Lankan people from having proper use of their educational rights?
The major preventatives of receiving education can generally be mentioned as socio-economic difficulties such as gender inequality, poverty, disabilities, communication difficulties, lack of learning materials, transportation difficulties, poor health and nutrition, natural disasters, conflicts, child labour and so forth. These difficulties make children suffer from community isolation, memorising problems, personal discomfort, and physical weaknesses and encourage children of school age to work instead of learning to support their family earnings. Others even drop out of school to cut down on expenses and some children do not get a chance to step into schools. According to the International Labour Organisation, more working children do not attend schools than those who do, especially in rural, urban and estate sectors. The age group of 15 to 17 years old had the highest dropout percentage overall.
However, regardless of the conditions, not getting a proper education causes great damage to individuals, communities, countries and the world as a whole. It results in a lack of understanding and knowledge about society’s social, political, and economic sectors, and makes it difficult to make prudent and timely decisions for both their country’s and the world’s well-being.
How does education contribute to development of a country?
Education plays a crucial role in shaping people’s thinking, behaviour, and actions. The school serves as the primary platform for providing standardised education. Through their educational journey, students enhance their empathy, interpersonal communication, organisational abilities, time management, critical thinking, collaboration, and creativity. These skills greatly contribute to the overall development of a country.
An uneducated or undereducated society poses a serious threat to a country as it disrupts the progress and the achievement of national interests. In a democratic Government system, citizens choose rulers who make rules to govern the country. If citizens are unaware of the value of their vote, they will never be able to gain their rights properly and will endanger the country’s well-being and future too. On the other hand, an educated society brings positive outcomes such as economic growth, a safer society with reduced crime rates, a secure and stable nation, poverty reduction, and respected citizens who uphold laws and regulations. In simple terms, educated individuals actively contribute to the development of a country. However, another pressing issue concerning education is the tendency of individuals to leave their home country after receiving free education, without contributing to the development of their motherland. This poses a significant threat to Sri Lanka as a developing nation.
School education as a whole provides a great contribution to the development of Sri Lanka by upholding economic growth, poverty reduction, environmental sustainability, political stability, technology and innovation, and social improvement. Therefore, it is important to provide proper education to every Sri Lankan child during the years of schooling and should encourage them to take advantage of it. At the same time, the existing school education facilities and the ways in which they are provided should be further developed. By these actions it will be able to reduce the gap between expected years of schooling and mean years of schooling.
Towards further development of Sri Lankan education system
There are many ways to further develop our existing local education system. Among them, as one way, it is possible to identify good elements through the education systems of successful States and add them to our education system.
When looking at the education systems of other countries with free education around the world, Finland’s education system is able to attract more attention. Finland is one of the most successful countries in Europe and has been named the happiest country in the world for many years.
A reason for this success in Finland is their education system. Finland also has a free education system like Sri Lanka. Yet they have achieved more success than Sri Lanka. A few reasons behind these achievements are – the Finnish education system provides everybody with not only an equal education but also promotes equity and justice. Furthermore, they work towards the professional development of teachers, students are free from exam pressure, no standardised testing or ranking of schools, students or teachers, they focus more on practicals rather than theories and most importantly the Finnish education system is collaborative rather than competitive. (Ministry of Education and Culture, Finland. Education in Finland. PowerPoint Presentation.)
Learning and adopting some good qualities from the Finnish education system to our local education system will promote our education system into a better place where all individuals, communities and the whole society of the country gain positive outcomes.
Other than that, to achieve the country’s general development through years of schooling, the profession of teaching should be treated with respect, there should be given guidelines and not prescriptions on how to teach the curriculum, there should be mechanisms to achieve all four basic language skills, a time should be given for students and teachers to bond with each other without being pressurised through continuous lessons, outdoor physical activities should be highly encouraged, it should promote practical programmes in our already existing theory-based system, and students with disabilities should be treated with the same way as other students without any difference.
These points will give the chance for both students and teachers to be close to each other. When students feel comfortable and understood, they would not be hesitant to express themselves and will seek assistance when they need it. Furthermore, students will no longer be pressured through private tuition. These steps will guide the way towards physical, mental and moral development of students and especially will promote equality, equity and justice in the education system.
Adopting these procedures will be a significant step in Sri Lanka’s overall development. Furthermore, to spread the significance of gaining knowledge, the Government, non-Governmental organisations and all other parties interested in developing the education system should show their efforts in practice by carrying out awareness programmes about the value of education, and various other methods which encourage people to gain knowledge and enhance their rational thinking ability.
Improving the efficiency of the school system will eventually create a more united society which works together to achieve the country’s goals and objectives. This will be beneficial for Sri Lanka as a strength towards becoming a developing nation.
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* Ms. Thanuri Jayodya is an Intern (Research)at the Institute of National Security Studies (INSS), the premier think tank on National Security established and functioning under the Ministry of Defence. The opinion expressed are her own and not necessarily reflective of the institute or the Ministry of Defence.