Daily News Editorial

A boost for education

12 November 2016

Budgets are generally year-by-year affairs and it is only rarely that we come across a Budget that manages to look beyond present day and take future needs into account. The Budget presented in Parliament on Thursday by Finance Minister Ravi Karunanayake was one such forward looking budget with a special emphasis on education.

Budget 2017, which has allocated an additional Rs.17,840 million to the education sector, contains several far reaching measures which are certain to stimulate this sector. Now that the Government has decided to make schooling compulsory until Year 13 and alter the compulsory nature of the GCE Ordinary Level examination, the other measures announced in the Budget will contribute to a more balanced education system that can match future needs.

Vocational training has been given prominence in the Budget, and rightly so, because better vocational training facilities will provide more opportunities to youth who either fail to enter the conventional universities or do not want to pursue an academically-oriented higher education. Even though the annual university intake is likely to be increased to 50,000 by 2020, there will still be a lot of students left out. Thus more vocational training opportunities will be a boon to these students.

The Budget has also focused attention on nursing with a substantial allocation to improve the main nursing training centre. Nursing has become a highly lucrative profession abroad and qualified nurses, both male and female, have no shortage of jobs to choose from here and abroad.

The allocation of Rs.1,300 million for the science and technology sector is also in tune with this strategy. Research and Development (R&D) is at a minimal level in our universities and these additional funds will boost the sector. The Budget has also given a boost to e-education or online learning, which is very popular abroad but just catching on here. If e-education can be expanded, students may not need to attend live lectures at all, with the course material delivered and even examinations done over the Internet.

We often hear the term “Public-Private Partnership” (PPP) in the context of economic development, but it can also be a fillip for education. Hence the allocation of Rs.300 million to the private sector to train students. Sometime back there was a programme to familiarize graduates with the workings of the private sector to bridge the chasm that exists between the theoretical world of the academia and the practical needs of the corporate sector. We hope that such an initiative will be started again. Moreover, private companies can partner with universities on advanced scientific research, as seen in many other countries.

Perhaps the most far-reaching education proposal in Budget 2017 is the plan to provide tablet computers preloaded with textbooks and syllabus material to 175,000 Advanced Level students and 28,000 Advanced Level teachers. While this is indeed a revolutionary step for Sri Lanka, many countries, including developing ones, already have such programmes. This will enable our students to leapfrog into the digital age.

The plan to offer scholarships for top performing students to prestigious institutions such as the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and Harvard University is praiseworthy. We hope that more rural students will get this opportunity, rather than affluent students from Colombo who can anyway afford to go overseas for higher education. The Government also hopes to attract foreign students to Sri Lankan educational institutions which will help gain a substantial quantum of foreign exchange. The establishment of more private sector educational institutions as proposed in the Budget will help prevent the flow of foreign exchange for overseas education to some extent.

The Government’s “Nearest School is the Best School” project, which has the potential of ending the maniacal scramble by parents for the “best” schools in the city, has received a shot in the arm from Budget 2017, with an allocation of 21,000 million for primary and secondary schools plus another Rs.5,000 million for school infrastructure development. It is no secret that many rural schools lack basic facilities such as toilets, taps, desks and laboratories. This will help bridge that gap.

In these columns, we have time and again called on the Government to halt the runaway three wheeler menace and the authorities seemed to have realized the danger posed by the three wheeler industry to the country’s youth. With banks providing easy credit, many youth abandon education after O/Ls and opt to buy a three wheeler. This is a massive loss to the economy and also ruins the future of the youth many of whom get addicted to a life of crime, drugs or plain laziness. By restricting the loan to value ratio for three wheeler purchases and encouraging electric cars as an alternative, the Government may finally have arrived at a solution to curb the threat posed by three wheelers, whose young drivers are responsible for most of the fatal accidents. These proposals are likely to point more youth to a future of education or vocational training, a much better alternative.