SAARC Charters education strategy

Lakshmi de SILVA

The importance of education and higher education in developing countries cannot be contested. Knowledge is a driver of growth. Globally there is an increasing trend towards expanding and maintaining knowledge.

Knowledge accumulation is now treated as capital accumulation, Prime Minister Ratnasiri Wickramanayaka said at the inaugural session of the SAARC Higher Education Ministers’ Conference held in Colombo, yesterday (27).

Sri Lanka is one of the few countries that provide higher education up to the first degree in universities. So is healthcare free from birth to death.

Free education has to a great extent contributed towards social equity and upward social mobility in Sri Lanka, the Premier said. Poverty is no bar to education in Sri Lanka, because not only the schools and the teaching but also books and school uniforms are provided free by the State, he said.

Higher education plays a vital role in economic development in the SAARC region.

While facilitating this role SAARC countries have to face many common challenges. Conferences such as this will help us to work out common strategies. With a rapidly increasing demand for higher education one of the challenges faced by the authorities in SAARC countries would be to maintain a high quality in the education imparted.

This is as important as providing access to it for all those who aspire to it, the Prime Minister said.

As higher education is enormously important to social and economic development in the region and the rate of return of the investment in it is attractive, expanding and strengthening of this field should be a priority concern of SAARC countries, he said.

It would be good therefore for SAARC countries to come together at a single forum and work out methods of closer and greater collaboration, more sharing of knowledge and other resources, the Prime Minister noted.

Minister of Higher Education Prof. Wiswa Warnapala said the SAARC region is being exploited by the developed countries for their benefit and therefore the SAARC region with its immense potential and intellectual resources needs a new strategy and a new set of policies to make use of its own valuable intellectual resources for its own development.

We need to make use of them for the development of the region.

The SAARC region needs a development strategy based on a development oriented higher education policy so that its higher educational resources could be used for the betterment of the region.

The universities in the SAARC region, with collaborative policies and strategies could make a contribution to economic growth by both generation and application of knowledge, he said.

What the SAARC region needs at this point of time is a comprehensive set of policies, focusing on the role of higher education. Such a set of policies, while taking cognizance of the global trends, need to be based on a SAARC strategy, Prof. Warnapala noted. SAARC Secretary General Dr. Sheel Kant Sharma addressing the conference said, the invaluable component in South Asia’s rich heritage is its vast human resources.

In order to ensure meaningful utilization of this resource, they need to be empowered with a well-designed education system, so that they can respond effectively to the challenges in a globalizing world.

This meeting can deliberate on re-shaping and re-modelling Higher Education Policies in South Asia to increase employability of our youth and to meet the needs of the 21st century, Dr. Sharma noted.