PREPARATORY CONSULTATION on "Education in the Post 2015 Development Agenda" Colombo, Sri Lanka

Overview of the Program

The preparatory mini consultation on "Education in the Post 2015 Development Agenda" was held on 20th of February 2013 at the United Nations Conference Room, UN Compound in Colombo, Sri Lanka as a project of "National youth movement for UN post 2015 development agenda"

There were participants from various backgrounds representing different Youth Organizations, Academia, Volunteers and Individuals within the education system. The consultation was organized by Mr. Mohamed Husni, Mr. Sikander Sabeer, and Mr. Sahan Hottatuwa. During the duration of the consultation, the participants discussed and debated various topics under the theme “Education in the Post 2015 development Agenda”. The participants were divided in to 2 main groups (Group A and Group B) and they discussed below topics.

I. General (Group A and Group B)

Key issues and challenges in education in your context

II. Priority areas for education

Group A

· Equitable Access to and Participation in Education

· Governance, Financing and Partnership/Cooperation

Group B

· Quality of Learning and Learning Outcomes

· Skills and Competencies for Life and Work

III. Recommendations for education in the post 2015 development agenda (Group A and Group B) 

The Introduction was conducted by Mr. Sikander Sabeer, where he explained the Post 2015 Development Agenda. Later this was followed by an introduction of the Preparatory Mini-Consultation and a clarification of the structure of the program conducted by Mr. Mohamed Husni. A special presentation on present Education System in Sri Lanka was highlighted by Mr. Sahan Hottatuwa.

The Sub-groups were facilitated by Mr. Natal Donnaloia, Programme Officer, United Nations Volunteers Sri Lanka and Mr. Mohamed Shibly, Education Specialist, UNICEF Sri Lanka.
After the group discussions, representatives from each group presented a summary of their discussions including key recommendations for Post 2015 Development Agenda. After which Mr. Mohamed Husni conducted a Q&A session followed by a vote of thanks.

Section 1 - General

Key Issues and challenges in education

In 1938 Sri Lankan Education Minister late Hon Dr. C W. W. Kanangara made Education in Sri Lanka Free, this became one of the most decisive decisions made in the History of the Country as it paved way for the social development of the country. Education in the country was accessible to all, regardless whether they were poor or rich, gender, religion, or race. Education is free till the tertiary level. Today the country boasts a Literacy rate of 91.2% which is high compared to the region.

But today’s education system has depreciated in its value due to much inefficiency caused by many stakeholders in the sector. The below are some of the key issues the current Education system is facing –

· Education as a percentage of the GDP has being decreasing over the past few years (Appendix 1)

· It is the same as with the Expenditure on Education as a part Government Expenditure. (Appendix 2)

· An alarming static is the opportunity for students to enter into State Universities, only 15% of Eligible candidates enroll into the state universities. (Appendix 3)

· As a result many students look for other opportunities, such as seeking higher education in foreign countries, where around USD 400 million is paid annually to foreign universities.

· 16.5% of government Schools has a student population less than 50, which faces the risk of closure. Most of these schools cater to the people in the rural areas(Appendix 4)

· Of the whole government Teacher population, only 38.5% are graduate teachers (Appendix 5)

· The Education system a lacks good governance structure and improper assessment policy. Often the system is bureaucratic and politicized, which further deteriorates the quality of the system.

· Inefficiency in Student assessment processes such exam paper marking in GCE A Level. The process takes time to release results, and there are inaccuracies in the results. Both of which frustrates students and parents.

· Lack of IT infrastructure









Key Areas of Emphasis for education in the future in light of past trends in you context
During the discussions, it was seen that different areas and aspects of the Education System needs to be addressed if the country wants to benefit from it.

Thus the participants proposed that the following needs to be addressed –

· Changes in the Secondary Education and Tertiary Education Sector, especially the content of the syllabi.

· Improving the efficiency of Exam Assessments process

· Changes in the Tertiary Education Sector including administrative changes.

· Promoting and improving Informal Education Sector

· Improving the Standard and Quality of Education

Section 2 - Priority areas for education

Topic: Equitable Access to and Participation in Education

This Topic discusses equitable access to participation in primary, secondary and tertiary education regardless of race, religion, color, languages, background and class. The education system in the country should revolve on the principles establish by Hon. Late Dr. C W W Kanangara. Today the Student Enrollment into the primary level of education stands at 91 %

Although the enrollment level at the primary is high, its drops at the secondary level and there’s a drastic drop at the tertiary level of Education. The quality of education is not consistent throughout the country. Some children may get the opportunity to study at a school with more resources, while many go to a school with fewer resources. Majority of the government Schools do not have a science stream at the GCE A/L class.

Thus the question arises whether there is equality in the Education System.

Thus the group recommends the following

· An Effective regulatory mechanism to hear out and address shortcomings and irregularities in accessibility to Education.

· It is not the total Government responsibility to ensure quality and efficiency of education in School, rather some of the responsibilities should be bared by all stakeholders such the alumni, parents, teachers, and so on. There should be Partial Government Involvement to ensure credibility and authority.

· The Government should look to create more opportunities in the tertiary sector for students to pursue their higher studies.

· The Government Should look into enriching the Education systems where more financial input in

Ø Infrastructure development to increase Student Capacity in universities

Ø Teacher training programs to increase the number of the graduate teachers in the Education Sector

Ø Schemes to help and establish small schools to cater students in the rural areas. These could be primary schools which has classes from Grade 01 – 05

Ø To empower more schools to have different streams, to create more opportunities for the students

Topic: Governance, Financing and Partnership/Cooperation

Adequate finances for Education sector as being a heated debate over the past year, many pressure groups in the country urge that the government should allocate more funds from the budget to finance the education sector. They state that Education should be 6% of the GDP. Currently Education is at 2% of the GDP while higher education is less than 0.5% of the GDP (Appex 1)

The question of the establishment of Private Education providers for the tertiary sector has being debated for more than a decade. Students who have no hope of entering into state sector universities look to be enrolled into already established local private universities or look into be enrolled into foreign universities, thus around 12,000 Sri Lankan students leave the country annually paying around USD 400 million a year to foreign universities. Sometime this is more than what the Government allocates from its annual budget for the Higher Education Sector.

But the above option is only available to the minority who has the financial capability, thus leaving a huge proportion of students with no hope of pursuing their higher education.

Thus with this in mind the group recommends the following –

§ Reducing extreme state government governance and extreme private governance.

§ Introducing competition among the private and public sector. Incentivize the schools and colleges in a practical and feasible manner based on performance, employment performance and quality of services provided and the manner it is implement so that they would self-upgrade themselves

§ Government should be encouraged to invest more on education, especially on secondary and tertiary sector of education so that their quality could be improved.

§ English and Information Technology education should be promoted quite extensively since its play a key role in the process of international education and professionalism

§ The tuition industry in Sri Lanka should be regulated and legalized. The tuition sector hinders the progress of education in the country. It affects all the stakeholders from teachers to the students.

§ The government should look to establish private-public sector relationships as both provide the country with benefits. This would help the public sector to standardize according to international standards which would enrich the outdated state universities.

§ The process of handling finances should be decentralized and the responsibility of it should be given to the provincial councils as they are more localized and know the issues the schools are facing in that region

§ A solution to the debate whether there should foreign private university establishments would be that; to provide an option (i.e. providing a voucher) for the students who has excelled at the exam assessments (G C E A Level) to enter into foreign private universities establishment with full/partial scholarships or get enrolled into the normal state sector universities.

Topic: Quality of Learning and Learning Outcome

The group defines key aspects of learning as-

· Gaining Knowledge

· Learning Skills

· Attitude

This is a continuous progression from childhood, by learning from experiences which can be Physical, Mental, Social, and Emotional which would satisfy the needs and wants through a process of active participation and apply them in life effectively and efficiently.

These are the key factors of good quality education; all three should work concurrently to ensure that the learning provided is efficient and effective. By doing a basic assessment of the current Education System, the group was able identify that Knowledge is provided adequately, but when it comes teaching different skills and attitudes the standards are pretty much low.

The group sees that quality of learning lays on the following traits –

· The students should be able apply what they learned practically. Application of knowledge is a very important skill.

· An Atmosphere of Sharing should be created in schools where students are able to share knowledge, experience and other things, a two way communication method where students can learn from each other.

· The Students should be able to understand what they are though in school. They should know what, and why they learn

· Students should be Empowered and thought to be independent. A culture of self-guided education should be initiated from where knowledge is not spoon fed.

· Education should foster Critical Thinking, a skill that presents day students lack.

· There should be proper guidance and support provided for students to help them to choose a career path.

· Career Building Programs should be in place in the secondary sector of education.

· Teachers should have easy access to soft and hard resources to help them to teach effectively and efficiently.

· Teachers should be good role models for Students.

· Education should a participatory process and students should learn to interact with other students from different cultures, backgrounds, religions and so on

The group further stress that the Education System in the country should resemble the UNESCO pillars of Education -

§ Learning to Know

§ Learning to do

§ Learning to live to together

§ Learning to be

Topic: Skills and competencies for life and work

Skills and competencies are necessary for any individual as they are useful in their day to day life. Thus developing these skills and competencies amongst students should be imbedded within the Education System. It is a constant process which should start from the Primary Level of Educatio
Some of the important skills and competencies are briefed below -

§ Critical Thinking and the ability to analyze are essential to improve a person’s ability to make good decisions.

§ The ability to identify and prioritize issues at any given time

§ Communication skills are vital, such as expressing ideas, bringing up arguments, and presenting solutions

§ Being Creative and innovative

§ Technological Skills are vital, as today people interact allot with technology to help them to do their daily work.

§ Computer Literacy is one of most important skill that everyone today should possess /

§ Entrepreneurship skills

§ Time Management skills emphasized with regards to balancing work and life

§ Leadership skills

§ Team spirit, team working should be developed, respecting other ethnicities, religions and cultures.

In Conclusion, the above skills and competencies have been summarized and given recommendations towards developing these through quality education.

Section 03: Recommendation for education in the post 2015 development agenda

The Sri Lankan government targets to achieve USD 4000 GDP per capita in the year 2016 and hopes the economy to grow at a steady pace. Education will be one of the major factors which would fuel economic growth, thus the government needs to focus and take attention in improving the education system in the country and that its sticks to core values in which it was established

The Key recommendations from the consultations are –

Recommendation 01

An Effective regulatory mechanism to address the various shortcomings and irregularities in accessibility to Education

The Government should not be the sole stakeholder in the issues and the wider community, particularly the alumni, teachers and parents should be involved in this process. A special task force/regulatory body has to established in every education sector composed of all the relevant stakeholders who are authorized to address the shortcomings in an effective way. However, partial Government Involvement is necessary to ensure credibility and authority. There should be a transparent systematic process for student intake of primary, secondary and tertiary education sectors

Recommendation 02

Increase the quality and the standards of existing state sector universities.

Allowing the current state universities to raise funds for themselves would enable them to invest in projects which would enrich the universities. The Government should focus on raising the standard of university education, as state sector universities provide a large portion of the labor force for the country. The government should look raise the standards of tertiary education by benchmarking with international standards, meanwhile government should invest a major proposition of the budgetary expenses for higher education, which will lead to greater intake of new students.

Recommendation 03

Decentralizing the institutions on administration and autotomizing the decision making process of relevant institutions.

Currently the Administration is bureaucratic, mismanaging, inefficient indecision making and so on. The Government should look to decentralize administration and empower the provincial/district council to make decisions and allocating finances. This is because provincial/district councils have local knowledge, closer to the regional issues thus making it sensible that the authority should be passed to them. However The Ministry of Education should have the ultimate authority and the ministry should a play a supportive role.

Recommendation 04

Measures should be taken to halt the Right Of education being violated by discouraging the closure of small schools (mostly in rural regions with less than 50 students) in those respective localities as they would lose their opportunities

The Government should emphasize the Right of Education and should look to discourage activities that hinder this. The government should look to empower small schools and encourage their continuation.

Recommendation 05

Allowing private universities to function & maintained by recognizing them through the proper authorities. New private universities should be established through joint ventures between the state sector and the private sector.

Establishing private universities and semi government universities will create more doors to continue quality tertiary education and provide a firsthand experience to explore the knowledge world. The private universities (mostly affiliated to foreign universities) should contextualize the syllabi and content as to be relevant in an international and national / native background foundation.

Recommendation 06

Improving the quality of learning provided

The main way of delivering education in school is through teachers, thus standards of teachers need to be increased. The government should look to increase the number of graduate teachers in schools. Programs like teaching new skills, soft skills, and various ways of teaching should be implemented to empower teachers. Teachers assessment programs should be unbiased and a transparent process, and teachers should be rewarded with promotion/higher pay according to the results of the assessment. There should be dialogue between the teachers and the Ministry where the teachers gets the opportunity to present their ideas, bring up arguments and providing useful feedback.

Recommendation 07

Changing the way students learn, and introducing a practical approach of learning “learning for life”

As emphasized above, the methodology of learning should change. Teaching soft skills and competencies should be imbedded and taught from the primary level. Students should not be fed with Knowledge and should be not depending on teachers, rather students should be taught to be independent and a culture of self-guided education should be fostered. The whole process of education should be participatory, where an atmosphere for exchange of knowledge is created.

Participants

Ms. Manoja De Silva, Rotaract Club

Ms. Jayani de Silva, University of Colombo, Faculty of Law

Mr. Tisura Gamage, University of Moratuwa, Faculty of Engineering

Mr. Daniel Alphonsos

Mr. M Intigab, Earth Lanka

Mr. V Thusandra, UNFPA

Mr. Suchith Abeywickrema, Sarvodaya and also worked closely with the Ministry of Education

Mr. Nandun Dissanayake, BCIS

Mr. Shevandra Wijemanne, Open University of Sri Lanka

Mr. Darshtha Gamage

Mr. Chathuranga Eleperuma, V Force, Sri Lanka



Facilitators

Mr. Natal, Country Head of United Nations Volunteer Program

Mr. H R M Shilby, UNESCO


Organizers

Mr. Sikander Sabeer,

Mr. Mohamed Husni

Mr. Sahan Hattotuwa