Part V Sri Lanka and Bhutan

Sri Lanka

As noted earlier, Sri Lanka is one country in the region that made a conscious effort to expand school education to cover all sections of the population well ahead of the rest. There was a policy choice towards this direction in the 1930s¹ even before the departure of the colonial rulers.² The main character of this change was ​‘to assert national control over an inherited colonial system and to create a unified system of education’ (Little, 2010). The provision of education in the national language (as against English) was an important aspiration of the freedom movement in the country.³ The freedom movement and the nationalist aspirations gave priority to the expansion of mass education in the country⁴ (the difference from the situation in India is to be noted). Post-independent governments have also continued this policy and that has helped in improving the educational achievements of the country.⁵ Hence, the country has a long history of free and compulsory education for boys and girls.⁶ Sri Lankan government initiated a free education system in 1944, which would be the first such policy in South Asia.⁷

Though caste divisions are not uncommon in Sri Lanka,⁸ the impact of Buddhism as the religion of the majority⁹ and political/​social mobilisations which pushed for the education of all¹⁰ might have moderated the possible negative impact of caste system on the education of marginalised groups in Sri Lanka. The situation of discriminatory gender norms¹¹ is also different in Sri Lanka. The female work participation rate, though low, is much higher than that in India.¹² Among the migrant workers to other countries, the share of female population is comparable to that of the males.¹³ The greater willingness to allow women to work may have enabled the school education of girls, which, in turn, improved the human development indicators, and the economic development to some extent. Sri Lanka’s per capita income is the highest (barring the Maldives) in the region.

All these factors reflect in the educational achievements of Sri Lanka. The country has achieved universal primary enrolment and the highest literacy. A slightly higher number of girls than boys attend school. ​‘On average, students attend school for about 10 years, compared to 6 years in neighbouring South Asian countries’.¹⁴ Schooling is free for all citizens, and efforts are made to reduce the indirect costs (like that of textbooks) on them. There were also efforts to improve textbooks and upgrade curriculum; strengthen education policy, institutions and financing; provide additional infrastructure, like libraries and also establish and implement quality assurance programs.¹⁵

However, there are certain persisting challenges,¹⁶ such as a ​‘rigid curricula, an emphasis on rote learning, and teacher-centric classrooms that focus on top-down and inflexible teaching methodologies.’¹⁷ Enrolment in higher secondary schools (10−12 grades) is only 65 percent. There is a need to see that more students pass at this level. There are challenges to the access to, and quality of schooling in the war-torn areas in the North and North-east of the country. ​‘The conflict displaced hundreds of thousands of citizens, destroyed parts of Sri Lanka’s educational infrastructure, and led to a scarcity of teachers, teaching materials, and more’¹⁸ and these issues are yet to be addressed fully. There is a need for regulation and quality enhancement in Early Childhood Education.¹⁹ The enrolment in higher education is not high; it is only around 15 – 16 percent.²⁰ ​‘Sri Lanka’s gross enrolment ratio in tertiary education is below the South Asian average and the lowest among all middle-income countries’.²¹ Some of these challenges are acknowledged by the governments.²² There is also an expectation among the youth to get employment from the government and growing unemployment among the educated people, and this is due to the performance of the economy, which is discussed in the following paragraph.

Sri Lanka also had a relatively closed economy till 1977. Then, it started economic liberalisation. This has led to a structural transformation of the economy with the decline of dependence on agriculture. Unlike countries like India or Nepal, the contribution of the industry towards the GDP is higher in Sri Lanka and has grown over time²³ However, the civil war arising out of the conflict between the Sinhala people and the Tamils that intensified after the 1980s (which could end only during the last decade)²⁴ had negative impacts on the economy.²⁵ It is estimated that ​‘the war had significant and negative effects both in the short and long-run (annual average of 9% of GDP)’.²⁶ Sri Lanka’s military spending was higher as a percentage of GDP, and it has gone up to 5.9 percent in 1995, which is over 20 percent of total government spending.²⁷ The tax revenues were less, and Sri Lanka has one of the lowest tax-GDP ratios in the world. The inability to meet the expenditures has led to a rapid increase in debt. It is noted that ​‘high levels of non-discretionary expenditures leave little room for critical development spending, including on health, education, and infrastructure.’²⁸ The inability to meet the expenditures has led to a rapid increase in debt.

The full potential of the achievements in education could not be realised due to the civil war.²⁹ There was the use of a substantial number of public resources for the war. It also affected the capital investments and economic opportunities in the country.³⁰ The war destroyed the infrastructure, including the education facilities in the Northern parts of the country where the majority of Tamils were living.³¹ Though the war has ended, adequate resources have not moved to the region, and economic opportunities continue to be limited. These are affecting education, especially in the North and North-eastern parts of the country.³² There could have been an increase in the dropout rate of children in the war-affected areas due to the inadequate quality of education and the economic status of their families.³³ Despite the early start and notable success in terms of the development of education, the ethnic conflict and civil war have limited the educational achievements in Sri Lanka. These internal factors played an important role in shaping the education-development interlinkages despite the favourable impact of globalisation. This is one case in the region where development in education preceded and contributed to the economic development, but factors (somewhat) unrelated to education reduced the potential benefits from it.

Bhutan

Casteism does not seem to have affected the education of vulnerable groups in Bhutan (which are predominantly Buddhist),³⁴ even though there are certain groups that are located in remote parts and so on, which have faced additional difficulties to acquire education. Though girls were not included in Buddhist religious schools, there was no serious discrimination against them³⁵ in modern education.³⁶ However, the mountainous geography and the consequent isolation delayed the development of modern school education in Bhutan,³⁷ which started only in the 1970s.³⁸ However, once it was established, it could expand and cover almost the whole school-going population.³⁹ The government (with the support of international agencies) has invested heavily in education during the last two to three decades and this could enhance the access to and quality of education.⁴⁰ International assessments of students’ achievements (like PISA) have shown that Bhutan has ​‘higher success rates in items requiring lower cognitive skills’, though there is a significant gap in performance in the more demanding tasks, and the achievements are below the OECD average.⁴¹

Bhutan could diversify its economy during the time when education also expanded. Its economy has undergone a notable structural transformation with only 16 percent of the GDP coming from agriculture, and the rest from industry (41%) and services (33%). Its per-capita income is also the third-highest in the region (after the Maldives and Sri Lanka). There were notable improvements in human development indicators also during this period. The life expectancy of the Bhutanese population has gone up from 34 years in 1960 to 71 years in 2018. It is noted that the spread of modern education has played an important role in these achievements in economy and human development.⁴²

However, there are not enough employment opportunities for educated people in the country.⁴³ There is heavy dependence on hydro-electric production as the domestic economic activity and as export, and a major part of basic consumption items have to be imported, which has a bearing on the employment generation in Bhutan. There may be a need to connect education with the development goals of the country.⁴⁴ Even those with higher levels of education may be compelled to take up work in agriculture or tourism which may not require the proficiencies required from such education. This may have impacts, such as a dampening of the demand for higher education. There could be a migration of educated people. These may have an impact on the supply and quality of school teachers. Bhutan is also not interested in opening up the country to all kinds of investments and people from outside. They justify it in the name of the uniqueness and ecological fragility of the country, and also that of the goal of enhancing happiness⁴⁵ instead of economic growth. Though the basis of this approach is genuine, how it affects educated people of the country, and the long-run trajectory of education are somewhat uncertain.⁴⁶

In essence, Bhutan is one case where a desirable equilibrium or mutually beneficial interlinkages between education and development could be achieved. This is despite the fact that modern education started in a major way only about 50 years ago. The internal factors (the absence of caste segregation, and the fact that gender norms did not work against the school education of girls, etc.,) facilitated this process. There are challenges but these are there in any society and one can hope that the mutually strengthening interlinkages between education and development would enable the country to address these challenges.

Author

V Santhakumar, Professor, Azim Premji University, Bengaluru