SL nowhere to becoming a knowledge-based economy: Expert

Politicisation of the entire Education sector renders this goal a ‘mission impossible’ to be on par with the rest of the world

Despite the high literacy rate, Sri Lanka lags far behind in achieving a “knowledgebased economy” status, which is the present trend in many countries, Educationist Prof. S. Sandarasegaram said.

In an interview with Education Times, Prof. Sandarasegaran, former Dean of the Faculty of Education, University of Colombo, with 40 years of experience in the field of Education, said that that countries have moved away from agriculturebased and industry based-economies, and are moving towards a knowledge-based economy, where knowledge is used for the production of both goods and services.

“The ability to read and write is not sufficient to achieve the status of a knowledge based-economy. The country is still following the traditional methods of education, and it is important to move forwards.

He said that the country has many policies such as the Education for Knowledge Society Project ( EKSP), Improving Relevance and Quality of Undergraduate Education (IRQUE) project, but there is a need to embrace these policies and put them into practice.

“Sri Lanka is still 3.5 out of the 10 score in knowledge-based education level. In schools, Science, Maths, English and IT, as well as teachers’ and principals’ leadership training is needed. Apart from that, creativity and innovation of students should be encouraged. For these we need foreign expertise in education and curricular developers,” he said.

He said it is not possible to reach the task of knowledge based economy when teachers lack motivation.

“In Sri Lanka, the average parent education is ninth standard. Therefore, teachers should play a major role. However, Ministry sources say that out of about 220,000 teachers in the country, at least 40,000 teachers are absent daily, which is a bad trend,” he said.

Prof. Sandarasegaram said that among university students, there is a need to improve soft skills such as leadership, decision making, teamwork, communication, English, technology and cohesive skills.

“Increasing the quality of higher education to ‘world class’ level is a must, at least in a few universities. This will bring recognition to the country, as well as attract for- eign students. The Education field can also be a major contributor to the economy, which countries such as Malaysia, Singapore and Thailand are following,” he said.

According to him, some requirements of a world class university are production of research in international indexes, employability of graduates, sizable number of foreign students (15%-20%) and foreign faculty members.

The former Dean said that research leads the country towards a knowledge hub. Therefore, it is important to increase the allocation for research.

“There is a need to relax bureaucratic hurdles when considering private sector contribution in education. Another way is to increase university-industry partnerships, especially for research needs. Investing in flexible cost effective job training and internships can also help the country achieve its goal,” the professor said.

He said establishing science/technology parks will also lead to indigenous innovation and attract Sri Lankan experts in for- eign lands to come and share their expertise. “Expatriates who have achieved in different fields should be invited to share their knowledge for a suitable incentive. It is important to utilise the international, talented expatriates to groom the local talent.”

In a 2003 National Education Commission report, it is stated that political intervention is an important hindrance in promotion.

“Political intervention hinders the path to a knowledge-based economy. Extreme politicisation of all levels in the education sector has resulted in inefficiency, lack of coordination within and between education ministry and other state educational bodies, and incompetent officials,” he said, quoting the report.

He stated that, ‘Political parties need to have a joint declaration in this regard and suggested eliminating political interference. “Unfortunately, this was suggested in 2003, and yet, we saw no such declaration,” he said.