The ‘Miracle of Asia’ and Higher Education
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Along with a number of others in the original email list, including the President of Sri Lanka and leading MPs, Groundviews was forwarded a compelling presentation by the University of Moratuwa Teachers Association on Sri Lanka’s higher education crisis. If this was produced by any NGO, the President and Government would no doubt have immediately and volubly dismissed, denied and decried the presentation as a foreign conspiracy. It is in fact produced by academics from within Sri Lanka’s beleaguered tertiary education system, and presents a damning indictment of the government’s policies towards education in general.
Miracle of Asia and Higher Education
Look at this document in full screen here, or download it as a Powerpoint presentation here.
Sri Lanka’s government is still buying military helicopters from Russia. Year on year, it increased military spending 7% from 2011 to 2012, despite the total annihilation of the LTTE and the end of war way back in 2009. An idea of and named after the President, Sri Lanka’s budget airline Mihin lost 18.6 million US dollars in 2011 alone.
Compare this with public data which clearly indicates government spending on education in Sri Lanka to be one of, if not the lowest in South Asia.
Also, over the past 3 decades, public spending on education in Sri Lanka, as a percentage of GDP, has rapidly declined.
For the Mahinda Rajapaksa and his government, Sri Lanka’s still at war. It’s also fine to lose close to two and a half billion rupees (calculated at current exchange rates) on Mihin last year alone, with complete impunity, and at the same time vehemently oppose calls to increase expenditure on education from the alarming 1.9% at present to 6%.
Miracle of Asia indeed!
With Education comes Knowledge and Discernment. The Power to Think and know ones Rights and Potential. To know how ones contemporaries in other countries are faring. To know what we are missing.
Maybe the Govt doesnt want people to be too clever or knowledgable. Needs to keep them docile and fool them all the time. Anaesthetise them with a good dose of the Opium of the Masses and Patriotism. That will keep them in check and the politicians can make hay while the sun shines. Masses can manage on Rs 2500 per month while politicians run around in luxury.
The amount of monies allocated to education in Sri Lanka even after the war is over is certainly indicative of the importance its rulers are giving for the promotion of education of the next generation of its citizens.
Could it be because the driving forces in the government are persons with limited education ?
The Rush by the Government to spend all the Money it borrows on Loans in Development work,opening Hotels and Factories
and buying Defence equipment( like Helicopters – long after the war) points to one thing and one alone. Spend the Money where it
brings returns to the people in control,by means of Commissions and Donations; and limit the non-productive recurrent expenditure
like Salaries on Academics,Higher Education,etc.
Pro Bono Publico.lk
What more can one expect from a bunch of uneducated, uncultured, dross and their more ‘educated’ apologists who condone without hesitation the policies and programmes implemented? Education is just one of the many areas that need to be addressed. There are many others that, if not addressed in time, will have exponential ill-effects on the country and on us all.
A commendable presentation, but one should not make the mistake of equating higher government expenditure to higher quality of education. One must also consider the higher education sector as a whole rather than just state universities, it is telling the tone of disdain the Association takes to ‘mushrooming’ of private universities. This is good thing! those 85% of the state cannot accommodate now has a chance of a degree in Sri Lanka rather than none at all or having to go abroad.
Granted Sri Lanka needs to find a way to keep it’s top class academics in the country; but perhaps just throwing money at the issue won’t necessarily work. We have thrown money at a ‘budget airline’ and look what has happened.
The best one can do is to find a way to bring the best of the market to work in higher education. Make them independent institutions (accredited by a central body) who can explore different business models (like a portion of the students being paid-for instead of free or students being able to ‘upgrade’ their courses for a fee, or a community college model where the first year is taught remotely or elsewhere by an accredited college.)
Another model is to let the student have the money directly as an education voucher redeemable at any higher education institutions of their choosing. That will create competition. That’s what we need. Just throwing in money wont solve the education problem, it might solve the salary issue, temporarily, until the next time the FUTA thinks of creating a power point presentation.
To: Don Arachi,
YES. You are quite right. Just throwing in money want do. However, it is the first step.
hi! chanda-pema if you can’t understand the civil society economics please don’t [edited out]. analysing these graphic presentation you could understand the gravity of the problem.the internationaly accepted %6 mark up should be met as soon as possible.
This document is misleading.
It’s core is % spent & takes pains to argue Education Expenditure as a percentages of GDP & Govt. total expenditure , 6% , 1.9% of GDP etc, What is the whole meaning of this ?
If there is any resource problem in Education (note, this % applicable to entire education , not only Higher education or Universities ) these guys should come out with real facts , not statistics as % of GDP or GOSL expenditure but any resource shortages in education, responsible by govt. , such as
1. No. of school buildings,
2. No. of Desks/Chairs / Libraries / library books Science labs & equipments /Toilet facilities for schools ,
3. No. of repairs not done to above by Govt.
4. No of Hostels for Universities
5. No of lecture halls / furniture / labs & equipments / libraries & books / reading halls / toilets / canteens for universities.
6. No of repairs not done to above by Govt.
7. Increase ( quantify) of Scholarship, Mahapola etc. handouts to students / or extension of those to cover total student population.
8. Recreation /sports facilities for both schools & universities
9. Mid day meal for school children
10. Dons may add more material facts
Then only any body can see if these demands have any validity or not.
It doe not make any sense of talking about % GDP or % of Total Govt. expenditure allocated for education ?
Sri Lanka’s GDP might have gone up considerably due to the War on terror unleashed by GOSL during last 30 years, since Govt. Defense expenditure is taken in as part of Gross Domestic Product of an Economy. all over the world.
For example even the thousands of expensive state of art missiles fired by SLAF to LTTE hideouts some of which had cost millions of rupees each, had become part & parcel of GDP.
Govt. s’ Total expenditure too went up due to billions of US$ spent annually for the War on Terror & this Presentation’s Miracle # 3 itself says it all, with % for education nose diving after 2005 when GOSL went all out war against terror.
So, % of GDP or Total Govt. expenditure for education in a volatile country like Sri Lanka just raising its head from ashes of destructive war & comparison with those % of other countries won’t give a clearer picture.
Agree. GDP not a proper benchmark to compare the standard of education in this country. A deeper malaise is the politicisation of the faculty and the entire university system.
The performance of a university should be judged by other KPI’s. For instance the University of Essex has a vision and mission.
Values
As a University we value the following: the highest academic and professional standards, social, cultural and economic obligation, environmental sustainability, diversity, equality of opportunity, integrity and leadership. We value sound financial management as a means of securing our academic activity and taking control of our own destiny. At Essex, research, teaching and knowledge transfer enjoy parity of esteem.
Purpose and mission
The purpose of the University is to extend and deepen the fund of human knowledge and pass the benefits on to others.
Our mission is to be a globally competitive, research-intensive, student-focussed university that takes seriously its economic, social and cultural responsibilities to the Eastern region, the UK and the world.
Question – Do our Universities have any vision or mission? Our politicians and dons are partly to blame.
Strategy
Our strategy from 2009-10 to 2013-14 is built upon a robust set of key performance indicators. This strategic plan points the way to an ambitious programme of investment designed to establish Essex as a university with global impact and an international reputation that is unparalleled for a university of our size, underpinned by our strong regional base.
We will grow through partnership (regional and international) and through developing our multi-campus footprint
We will invest prudently, with a focus on student experience and on enhancing our position as a top-ten university for research quality
We will focus a proportion of our resource on a small number of collaborative research projects that will lever external funding to address major global challenges facing humanity
We will maintain our commitment to widening participation and will continue to focus on the recruitment of high quality students both at home and internationally
Given the diversity and strength of our income base, alongside our effective mechanisms for cost management, the University of Essex will remain financially resilient even if we face future funding constraints.
Do our Universities have any strategy? It cant happen because of the so called free education system we are dependent on handouts from the Govt. Neither do we allow the system to be privatised and allow private Universities because our position will be threatened. Instead we adopt a ‘Dog in the Manger’ attitude and prevent others from higher learning in Sri Lanka. There is no ‘free education’ just as there is no free lunch. Education is not the monopoly of the 20,000 who manage to enter our public university system. It has to be open to all citizens of this country.
So it would be helpful if the dons put their brains together and come up with a system to make public universities in Sri Lanka finacially viable and of world class rather than parading on the streets and demanding their pound of flesh.
Govt Spending on education as a % of GDP is a standard and widely accepted measure used in the development economics literature to reflect a govt’s commitment to education (similarly health). One of the serious issues that the current trade union action has shown is that this measure has decreased further even _after_ the end of the war (i.e. post 2009).