Lanka: Promoting equitable access to education
Every morning, students at Sujatha Balika Vidyalaya School attend assembly before heading off to class. The graduation rate of students through grade 11 is now 85 per cent compared to 82 per cent overall in 2011
Sri Lanka has promoted equitable access to roughly 3.2 million students, with 52 per cent of them female students, and improved the quality of education by promoting school-based teacher development and the regular measurement of learning outcomes and through strengthening governance and delivery of education services. The country has approximately four million school children with 215,000 teachers and around 10,000 schools. The main obstacle is that public investments in education were modest when compared to countries with similar income status. Education expenditure accounted for 1.9 per cent of GDP, which was roughly 7.3 per cent of the government budget in 2014. More education investments are needed to improve schools to meet the demands of the modern global economy. In addition, education for key skills for a knowledge hub, such as English language, ICT, science and mathematics, are limited and need to expand considerably. And lastly, there are wide regional disparities in the current education system.
Solution
Transforming the School Education System (TSEP) as the foundation of a knowledge hub project has been designed to promote students’ access to, and quality of primary and secondary education to provide a foundation for the knowledge-based economic and social development of the country. It supports the Sri Lanka government’s development initiative called the Programme for School Improvement, which aims to strengthen school performance and improve student learning. Several innovative reforms are also being supported, including the establishment of a system for conducting national assessments of learning outcomes, school-based management, and school-based teacher development.
Results
The TSEP, which is focused on enhancing equitable access and quality of primary and secondary education, has helped to support improvements in several key outcomes:
The survival rate of students through grade 11 is 85 percent (88 per cent for girls and 82 per cent for boys), compared to 82 per cent overall in 2011.
The number of direct project beneficiaries is about 3.2 million students thus far; of which, female students account for 52 per cent.
School-based teacher development programmes had been conducted in 70 per cent of project areas. About 186,500 teachers (82 percent of all teachers) have benefitted.
The Content and Language Integrated Learning Framework for Bilingual Education has been introduced to over 1,000 secondary schools in all nine provinces, exceeding the initial target of 900 schools.
The number of direct project beneficiaries is about 3.2 million students thus far; of which, female students account for 52 per cent.
IDA has provided financing for the education sector in Sri Lanka over a long period of time to improve the quality of human capital through effective education and skills development. This US$100 million project is the fifth education project in Sri Lanka.
Partners
The World Bank, UNESCO, UNICEF, Germany’s GIZ, the Asian Development Bank, the Australian Government Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, and the Korean International Cooperation Agency are active key development partners in the primary and secondary education sector in Sri Lanka. There is a strong partnership among partners and we are working in support of the Government’s overall Education Sector Development Framework and Programme (ESDFP) for 2013-2017. As a coordinating agency, the World Bank ensures that the activities done by development partners are harmonized with the government programme. Australian Government supports the ESDFP through a trust fund agreement with the World Bank.
Moving Forward
The project has been aligned with the government’s Education Sector development Framework and Programme and will continue to help the government strengthen the country’s school education system at all levels. The project has promoted school completion up to age 16 for both boys and girls. The operational work is underpinned and supported by analytical work. Linking financial support to the achievement of results, this project was the first Results-Based Financing Operation in Sri Lanka.