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Importance of improving quality of education stressed

by Manjula Fernando

The importance of improving the quality of education was unanimously stressed by all stakeholders at the Education Conference held at Taj Exotica, Bentota last weekend.

The conference themed "Efficiency, Effectiveness, Equity and Excellence - A vision for Education" organised by the HR and Education sub-committee of the Ceylon Chamber of Commerce was the first ever education conference attended by all stakeholders to debate the direction of education reforms in the future.

The main focus of the debate was private sector participation in education and the setting up of private universities and schools to increase competition in this sector and improve the quality of education.

The Senior Resident Representative of the IMF Dr.Nadeem Ul Haque who presented three papers at the conference said that a poor quality education system may be one of the most important reasons obstructing a country's economic growth and a higher probability of unemployment.

He observed that the education sector should be opened up to the private sector to increase competition and provide access to quality education for those who can afford. Mr. Haque suggested that the education subsidy be retained only for the poor.

He said the Education Ministry should be relieved from managing educational institutions. Instead, Mr. Haque proposed that a decentralised management policy should be adopted by the government to give more powers to individual institutions for curricular development and administration, etc.

Tertiary Education and Training Minister Kabeer Hashim said that he was not against the proposal for private universities as they would ensure higher education for GCE AL qualified students who do not get selected for universities. "This group will be most probably from the middle class. The rich and affluent will go to foreign universities anyway," he commented.

JVP MP Bimal Ratnayake argued that private universities will worsen the state of government institutions and deprive the rights of poor children. He said: "In Sri Lanka it has not come to a state where 'no wealth' means 'no education' but privatisation of educational institutions would lead to this."

Mr. Ratnayake was of the view that decreasing government funding and different policies of consecutive governments have led to the poor quality of education. He requested the private sector to play a more positive role assisting the government to reform the education sector to suit the changing economic and global needs without clamouring for privatisation.

The Chamber will make recommendations towards effective education reforms to the government, based on the issues raised at this conference.

Among the participants were Education Minister Dr. Karunasena Kodituwakku, School Education Minister Suranimala Rajapaksa, Former Education Minister Susil Premajayantha, Vice Chancellors of universities, principals, teachers, students and private sector representatives.

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