Sri Lanka Education Forum

Eight thousand of the 10,000 principals failed examination God bless the students (Lanka-e-News, June 11, 2009, 7.20 PM; http://www.lankaenews.com/English/news.php?id=7842) "The entire education of Sri Lanka has been politicized and collapsed. Eighty percent of the education officers are political appointees. Eight thousand of the 10,000 principals are politically chosen persons who have failed the recruitment examination. After 2005, no proper selection of principals has taken place. Although the authorities say that the 2006 gazette will be followed for the principal appointments, those who obtained 185 marks in the examination were dropped and those who obtained 115 marks were given posts. The Supreme ...

What should the Ed forum do next? We have so many options. Our recent seminar on Year-1 Admissions alone pointed us in several directions. Then the President decreed that henceforth all tertiary education institutions shall be reviewed by the government. That's good, but quality assurance of education is too important to be left to government. In quality assurance in education, typically, government agencies and civil society organizations play complementary roles (more on that later). Therefore, at this point, the Education forum will focus its energies on collecting information and ranking education choices for school leavers, and disseminating the information ...

In Sri Lanka almost 90% of school-age children complete Grade 11, the grade that marks the end of the senior secondary school, but only 37% of those qualify at the GCE (O/L) examination and proceed to Grades 12 and 13, the collegiate years. Therefore, for all practical purposes, the typical school leaving age in Sri Lanka is 16, the age of an average student completing Grade 11 in Sri Lanka. We use the term 16+ to characterize the full range of school leavers no matter when they leave school. Where do our school leavers go? A recent World Bank report estimates ...