This book examines skills demand and supply in Sri Lanka, and offers insightful analysis of the education and training system, and its responsiveness to changes in demand for skills. The book also provides suggestions on how the skills development system can be improved to better achieve Sri Lanka s development goals.

A country’s education system plays a pivotal role in promoting economic growth and shared prosperity. Sri Lanka has enjoyed high school-attainment and enrollment rates for several decades. However, it still faces major challenges in the education sector, and these challenges undermine the country’s inclusivegrowth goal and its ambition to become a competitive upper-middle-income country. The authors of Sri Lanka Education Sector Assessment: Achievements, Challenges, and Policy Options offer a thorough review of Sri Lanka’s education sector—from early childhood education through higher education. With this book, they attempt to answer three questions: • How is Sri Lanka’s education system performing, especially with respect to participation rates, learning outcomes, and labor market outcomes? • How can the country address the challenges at each stage of the education process, taking into account both country and international experience and also best practices? • Which policy actions should Sri Lanka make a priority for the short and medium term? The authors identify the most critical constraints on performance and present strategic priorities and policy options to address them. To attain inclusive growth and become globally competitive, Sri Lanka needs to embark on integrated reforms across all levels of education. These reforms must address both short-term skill shortages and long-term productivity. As Sri Lanka moves up the development ladder, the priorities of primary, secondary, and postsecondary education must be aligned to meet the increasingly complex education and skill requirements.

Since the late 1970s, Sri Lanka has undergone a socio-economic transformation, from protectionism towards economic liberalisation and increasing integration into the world economy. Through a systematic comparison of these periods of economic change (1956–1977, and 1977 to the present), Angela W. Little and Siri T. Hettige examine the impact of this transformation on education, youth employment and equality of opportunity in Sri Lanka. The book charts Sri Lanka’s shift from a predominantly agricultural economy to one dominated by services and manufacturing, a reduction in unemployment, rising educational and occupational levels, expectations and achievements, and a reduction in poverty. In turn, it reveals a growing role for the private sector and foreign interests in post-secondary education and a modest growth in private education at the primary and secondary levels, as well as widening social disparities in access to qualifications, training and skills. The Sri Lankan experience of, and engagement with, globalisation has been tempered by a long-running ethnic conflict that hindered economic and social development and diverted considerable public funds into defence and war. Now that the war is ‘won’, the challenge is how to invest in human resource development and the fulfilment of the expectations of youth from all ethnic and social groups. This challenge requires serious policy analysis, the generation of more state revenues, the reallocation of existing public resources, and a political commitment to the winning of a sustainable peace and stability. This book makes an important contribution to the broader international literature on the implications of globalisation for education policy and practice, and to the interaction of exogenous and endogenous forces for educational change. It deals with the tension between the high social demand for education and the growing demand for specialised skills in a changing economy. As such, it has a wide interdisciplinary appeal across education policy and politics, Asian education, South Asian society, youth policy, sociology of education, political economy of social change, and globalisation.

Empowered Sri Lanka, Sri Lanka’s development policy document, envisions reorienting the country toward a modern and high-value-adding economy that is able to compete in the global market. Expanding the middle class and improving the living standards by creating one million jobs are at the core of the policy. This report seeks to support the realization of that vision by analyzing Sri Lanka’s employment situation and drawing recommendations from the analysis. The report starts with an overview of the labor market in relation to both supply and demand. It then looks at the issues of aging and skills generation. The concluding chapter examines links between labor market trends, informality, and poverty. This study is a co-publication of the Asian Development Bank and the International Labour Organization.

Sri Lanka’s early achievements in education and literacy became well known among the international development community in the middle of the last century and were often used to benchmark progress elsewhere. Development, Education and Learning in Sri Lanka presents an illuminating narrative of changing education fortunes and inequalities, based on half a century of research. This research journey was undertaken in collaboration with Sri Lankan researchers island-wide in myriad communities, schools, classrooms and education offices, through conversations with countless parents, teachers, students, community members, trade union officers, politicians and members of local, national and international development agencies, as well as through extensive documentary analysis. The book delineates the distinctive and changing features of the Sri Lankan education system through comparisons with systems elsewhere, through an understanding of national political, economic and social conditions, crises and upheavals, through changes in education policy and through shifting patterns of opportunity among diverse social groups. These analyses are framed by themes in the international development discourse ranging from modernisation to basic needs to globalisation and sustainable development, some of which themes have been influenced by the Sri Lankan story. The book’s overriding messages are the need to understand education and development in a country’s own terms, and to place learning at the heart of education policy, situating it within broader conceptions of the purpose, values and means of development. Praise for Development, Education and Learning in Sri Lanka 'Through rigorous and comprehensive research and a blend of local and global perspectives, this book offers invaluable insights for academics and policymakers alike.' Tara de Mel, Director, Bandaranaike Academy for Leadership and Public Policy and former Secretary, Sri Lanka Ministry of Education 'Reflecting on a career-long engagement with education and development, Angela Little brilliantly co-locates the personal, political and the theoretical. A privilege to read.' Simon McGrath, University of Glasgow 'This passionate engagement with education reform and development offers very instructive lessons for academics and policymakers in Sri Lanka, and beyond.' Siri T. Hettige, University of Colombo 'Fifty years of personal experience in Sri Lanka from many vantage points. A focus on education and society, rather than education alone. And a concern to understand rather than prescribe. This book has no competitors.' Mick Moore, Institute of Development Studies, Sussex

This publication is part of a series of six country reports on technical and vocational education and training (TVET) and higher education in Bangladesh, Nepal, and Sri Lanka. Each report presents current arrangements and initiatives in the respective country's skills development strategies. These are complemented by critical analyses to determine key issues, challenges, and opportunities for innovative strategies toward global competitiveness, increased productivity, and inclusive growth. The emphasis is to make skills training more relevant, efficient, and responsive to emerging domestic and international labor markets. The reports were finalized in 2013 under the Australian AID-supported Phase 1 of Subproject 11 (Innovative Strategies for Accelerated Human Resource Development) of Regional Technical Assistance 6337 (Development Partnership Program for South Asia).

This publication is part of a series of six country reports on technical and vocational education and training (TVET) and higher education in Bangladesh, Nepal, and Sri Lanka. Each report presents current arrangements and initiatives in the respective country’s skills development strategies. These are complemented by critical analyses to determine key issues, challenges, and opportunities for innovative strategies toward global competitiveness, increased productivity, and inclusive growth. The emphasis is to make skills training more relevant, efficient, and responsive to emerging domestic and international labor markets. The reports were finalized in 2013 under the Australian AID-supported Phase 1 of Subproject 11 (Innovative Strategies for Accelerated Human Resource Development) of Regional Technical Assistance 6337 (Development Partnership Program for South Asia).

Sri Lanka’s 2005 Article IV Consultation reports that the fiscal deficit exceeded budget targets, and with a significant amount of government financing provided by the central bank, the growth in monetary aggregates increased, contributing to higher inflation. The near-term economic outlook is to a large extent shaped by the post-tsunami reconstruction effort. Reconstruction and a quick rebound in tourism should maintain growth momentum, but demand pressures and fuel price adjustments are expected to keep inflation in double digits.