“Is the Education system in Sri Lanka practical today?.”

 

Is the education system in Sri Lanka practical today?

Education plays a major part in the life and the culture of a country. Education system in Sri Lanka has long history and education provide as a fundamental right. The Sri Lanka has a literacy rate of more than 92%. This is the highest rate in the south Asia. 

As a developing country Sri Lanka has a free education system. Under this amazing facility every student in government schools they received a set of books according to their curriculum and also given a school uniform material free of charge. That will encourage parents to send their children to schools. 

Sri Lankan school education system has three main sections. Primary education, secondary education and Advanced level education as pre university education. Most of Sri Lankan schools based on Sinhala or Tamil medium and not the English medium. The elite colleges in major cities such Colombo and Kandy teach in all three medium.

National schools directly controlled by the Ministry of Education. Therefor they have direct funding from ministry. These schools have rich history and better maintained facilities than the average public schools. So these school children get more encourage and support of their carrier.

Provincial schools consist of the vast majority of schools in Sri Lanka. These schools funded and controlled by the local government. Some of these schools suffer from poor facilities and a shortage of teachers. Anyhow some facilities are not equally distributed over the country. Some rural areas students drop out from schools in early ages due to much poverty related reasons. Some of children dropped at the secondary education section which faced to O/L exam. Therefor only limited number of students qualified to get A/L education. Mostly in this situation can see in villages. So these dropped young people try to find a job, but with this education system children couldn’t get many skills for a perfect job. Unfortunately present school education gives only paper based knowledge. They don’t have practical knowledge. So this young generation enter to the labour market as unskilled people. The high youth unemployment levels shows that the present state run education system is not producing current labour force requirements and majority of young school leavers ended their long school life without a hope of their future. 

On the other hand many of the private schools have access to newer facilities than the state run schools. These private schools follow the local curriculum set up by the English medium. And more new subjects according to the international level. Also these schools introduce extra curriculum activities to the children. 

In the late 1980s some international schools are established in Sri Lanka. Anyone with the ability to pay can join these schools. No rules and regulations or controlled by the ministry of education. It comes under the board of investment. Due to this standard of education varies greatly between schools and with lesser level of students discipline compare with other types of schools. These schools are charge high tuition fees and can therefore provide good facilities and high standard. An international school prepares students for the modern global job requirements. But local education systems still depend on the old syllabus. 

Due to high competitive nature of exams like grade 5 exam parents seek additional help at home and at tuition classes to improve their children’s performance. They always force to do only school work or exam things. Such these exams became a competition not to mould a good human being. So this situation robbing the childhood and having a negative impact to the child health. 

So every student in schools under controlled by ministry of education and provincial council both must give equal and newer education. It’s a right of these children.