Education and training our best investments - Prof. Lakshman Jayathilaka

Gayan Kanchana

As a developing country it is distinctive that education and training are, indeed the best investments that the public and private sector can make, for an information economy depends upon a knowledgeable, skilled and educated workforce, Chairman, National Institute of Business Management (NIBM) Prof. Lakshman Jayathilaka said.

Prof. Jayathilaka was speaking at a seminar on the Current Education Perspectives in Sri Lanka organized by the Sri Lanka Economic Association jointly with the Organization of Professional Associations of Sri Lanka which was held recently at the OPA Auditorium.

Jayathilaka said that all those who are educated to a tertiary and higher level have a responsibility in the education and training of our children and youth.

This group includes the professionals too. As a developing country this should be considered a special and ‘sacred’ obligation devolving on them.

“In addition to being practitioners we should also become educators and trainers, to some degree. Every organization that employs more than a certain minimum number of persons must have formal and non-formal arrangements in it for on going education and training of its personal”, Jayathilaka added.

Any organization not doing so should be charged a levy that should go into a national or regional education and training fund.

This is because of education is a national enterprise and well within our scope. We should not ask help for this purpose from other nations. The performance assessment of any professional, administrator and executive should include an item showing significant contributions to the education inclined from them.

Senior Economist of the World Bank Dr. Harsha Aturupane said that with the urbanized education trends the Government expenditure on education as a percentage of GDP should be increased in the country to develop and much more strengthen human capital and facilitate towards the new technology revolution.