Rs. 1.6 billion spent on ‘ Education Marketing ‘ this year – Dr Rohantha Athukorala
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The 7th Annual International Schools of Sri Lanka( TISSL) staged a Conference On Education themed ‘ Leading in Turbulent Times’ at Marriott Resort & Spa in Weligama.
An the elite cross section of academics and educational business personalities in the country listened to set up top speakers from overseas and Sri Lanka on the recent insights to education management.
A key insight shared by one speaker was that from the latest data for the first seven months of 2019, the education industry of Sri Lanka has invested a staggering Rs. 1.6 billion on advertising. To be specific 871 million on TV, 240 million on Radio and 566 million on Press advertising. “ Which mean the industry will touch a three billion rupees by the year end and at a 5% of net revenue as ad spend the industry will net in a minimum 60 billion rupees in Net Revenue at a bottom line of Rs.30 billion at conservative estimates” said Dr Rohantha Athukorala the President/ CEO of Clootrack- Sri Lanka, Maldives and Pakistan the number one Artificial Intelligence (AI) company in South Asian for perception management on the theme “ Cutting Edge marketing with Artificial Intelligence( AI). The speaker went on to highlight that when so much money is invested on ‘ promotions’ it is paramount that the ‘ product delivery’ is as per international standards.
He cited an MBA programme from UK that was being run in an education institute in Sri Lanka which was administering and old Syllabi without a proper Protocol on journal articles, structured notes and breakout seminar questions was virtually running a ‘ Rogue MBA’ which does not do justice to the students studying the Programme. After one year of delivery by the visiting faculty of top professionals from the private sector they quit the Programme as no progress was made to product development even though the SBU was making a profit running to almost ten million.
We must not resort to such practices where the product advertised do not live up to the promise advertised. This will effect the whole education sector voiced Dr Athukorala who was the 1st Executive Director of the pivotal policy making body- NCED in the Ministry of a Finance and also served in the key institutions Sri Lanka Tourism and Sri Lanka Export Development Board as Chairman.
The other key speakers at the conference were Dr Phil Kirkman from UK, TEDx Speaker Ujjwal Singh from India, OxfordAQA Managing Director Sadie Visick, Inspirational Speaker and sports personality Coxless Crew Member Natalia Cohen. From Sri Lanka Dr Darshan Perera Chairman CIIHE and the Chief Guest one of the top business personalities and academia Dr Ravi Fernando of INSEAD fame.
Dr Athukorala appealed to the international education industry to ensure that the trained talent engages the Sri Lankan economy given that the country is at a low ebb of a 2.6% GDP growth being the lowest performing economy in the South Asian economy beaten by Afghanistan’s and Nepal.
“The top economy is Bangladesh at a 8.1% GDP growth which is where we need to Aspire to and without the support of International schools, we can make this objective a reality voiced Athukorala.
The Chairperson of TISSL Kumari Hapugalla Perera said ‘ I am honoured to present this international conference so that Sri Lanka see the global trends unleashing as we speak so that the taken we train can contribute to engaging the countries economy to make it the strongest economy in South Asia.
“ We must now be part of the national budget planning process so that International schools are part of the overall education thrust nationally’ said Ms. Hapugalle.