Colombo, July 17, 2009: The Higher Education Institutions should drive and accelerate Sri Lanka’s ascent from a low income country to a middle-income country says a new World Bank report launched today. The report - “The Towers of Learning: Performance, Peril and Promise of Higher Education in Sri Lanka”- stresses the need for the higher education sector to lead the creation of a skilled, technologically competent, and enlightened population that can transform Sri Lanka from a country in conflict to a prosperous country in peace. “To reach middle–income status, it is critically important that Sri Lanka develops its intellectual capital,” said Naoko Ishii, World Bank Country Director for Sri Lanka. “ To do so the higher education institutions need to meet many challenges and be capable of producing world class graduates and also lead the creation of a favorable climate for a peaceful, multi-ethnic, multi-religious and multi-cultural Sri Lanka.” The report says that the economic relevance and quality of the higher education sector at present is considerably below the level required of a middle-income country. Sri Lanka spends a substantially smaller portion of its national income on education than other middle income countries. Public investment on university teaching and research, and the alternative higher education institutions, is low. Sri Lanka's investment in education is about 2.8 percent of national income, whereas lower middle income countries invest on average 4.3 percent of national income and upper middle income countries invest an average of 4.6 percent of national income on education. The economic path to a prosperous middle-income Sri Lanka will be based on knowledge-intensive activities such as information technology and software development, engineering, industrial processing, banking, finance and insurance. At present the country’s capacity and position in these areas are well below the average for comparable developing and exemplar middle-income countries. The academic community of the country needs to lead, participate in and support the process of higher education development, says the report. This academic human resource has been substantially under-utilized in the past, due to the various constraints faced by the sector, and partly due to the weaknesses within the sector. “Sri Lanka’s requirement now is to look at development at multiple levels, including the level of the entire sector, the level of individual institutions within the sector, and the level of individual programs and courses within institutions,” said Benoit Millot, Lead Education Specialist and co-Team Leader of the report. “The resource envelope available will determine which options for development are feasible, and thus it is important to mobilize resources for the development strategy, as well as to ensure that the resources available are efficiently utilized.” The report puts forward several recommendations, including: - Strengthening of English language and ICT skills of students as a way to improve their employment prospects and productivity at work.
- developing soft-skills such as initiative, trainability, flexibility, team-orientation, communication, positive work attitudes and discipline into degree courses to meet the skills sought by employers
- establishing strong science, technology and innovation linkages between higher education institutions and industries so as to increase the performance and competitiveness of firms in the country and accelerate economic growth.
- Broadening the pathways and mobility between and across different types and levels of higher education to adapt acquired skills to new working environments, so as to create an adaptable and technically skilled workforce.
- establishing a quality assurance system for the full higher education sector covering the programs and courses in the alternative higher education sector, postgraduate education, undergraduate education and external degree programs.
The development of the higher education sector will be of immense benefit and value to Sri Lanka although it is a complex and challenging process. “The higher education community contains the cream of the country’s intelligentsia, and has unique potential to contribute to the economic and human development of the country, said Harsha Aturupane, Senior Economist and Co-Team leader of the report. “As Sri Lanka now emerges from a long period of secessionist conflict, the higher education institutions, through their teaching and research, need to enhance and strengthen the values and norms, such as pluralism, social tolerance, respect for diversity and reasoned debate, that are at the heart of modern political democracies.” Finally, the report says the necessary mix to make this a reality is visionary leadership from political authorities and policy makers, and ownership and long-term commitment from the higher education community. |
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