SL’s education expenditure drops in past decade: CB report
View(s):A 0.3 per cent drop in education expenditure as a proportion of GDP from 2003-2012 had been reported in the Central Bank (CB)’s 2012 annual report.
As at 2012 public spending on education constitutes 1.85 per cent of GDP, a 0.06 per cent reduction from 2011.
Although budgetary allocations for education rose between 2004 and 2006, educational expenditure as a percentage of GDP has experienced a downward trajectory since then, the report reveals.
Despite this, absolute expenditure in education has risen dramatically in the period 2003-2012 with a remarkable 238 per cent increase in current expenditure during this period.
The report highlighted other gains in the education sector with an increase in the teacher/student ratio by 3 points between 2003 and 2012 hinting at a higher quality educational provision. IT education in state schools experienced significant progress with the continuation of the one laptop per child (OLPC) policy in 2012.
Nonetheless the report also noted that the Sri Lankan university education system “continues to face challenges of keeping abreast with domestic and global requirements to cater to the needs of the labor market”.
Although the state allocated Rs. 75 million in 2012 to each of the six universities for the modernization of higher education institutions this has been insufficient to cope with the surging demand for higher education the report noted. The report acknowledged that the demand for higher education in Sri Lanka is “difficult to be fulfilled through public sector higher education institutes alone” and stressed the need to encourage private sector participation in higher education and for collaboration between public and private institutions in order to better utilize research output.
Furthermore the report also expressed concern over the rise in the number of schools teaching less than 50 students to 1,598 in 2012 compared to 1,552 in 2011. The report also indicated the disparity in resource endowments to such schools compared to the national level reflecting the need to rationalize the usage of existing resources.
(SP)
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