Financial Times

Closer links between education and job market
By Shenali Waduge
Too often graduates are at the receiving end of comments made by Sri Lanka's corporate community as to their inability to fit into the corporate work environment. Their attitude to work, their lack of English language skills, their body language, their dress sense etc are all frowned upon. Are corporate’s justified in generalising all graduates as a bunch of ill-suited potential executives, unfit to climb the corporate ladder?

Sri Lanka's education system, derived from the British colonial rulers was limited then only to an elite class of people. Today education is free to all. Sri Lanka's education system is structured thus: 5 years of elementary schooling, 6 years of lower secondary and second years of higher secondary. Half a million children prepare for the O/L examination annually yet only a third move forward to the A/L examination and only two percent of this are actually offered university admission at the nine universities in Sri Lanka.

We would expect the cream to fall into this 2 percent (almost 115,000) and that Sri Lanka's education system is outdated is undeniable. And what about reforms - well countless dialogues and proposals are initiated but with no likelihood of any practical solutions being carried. That is the status quo.

The government carries the burden of ensuring that free education is provided for all. But it is a burden that the government is unable to handle alone.
A system of fee-levying seems the best option but there is opposition to that option too. While the government is bearing the burden of providing free education it must not be forgotten that the private sector is just as important. The private sector employs 45% of Sri Lanka's workforce and therefore the system should be sensitive towards the needs of the private sector.

Private sector role
The private sector on their part need to depart from merely bemoaning the inadequacies of the graduates but outline a programme in cohesion with the university authorities to nurture "employable graduates". Various business institutes could facilitate this by working out a programme that would become part of the course curriculum for which students could be charged.

Companies can even set up intern programmes wherein students could do work on a part-time basis in order to prove their talents further. What the education system needs to do is to promote education that is relevant and current. The majority of students following university degrees in Sri Lanka do not come from affluent families. Therefore, the government and the private sector need to have programmes that will not create further confusion.

There is no need to create committees for this task - it is wise for the Ceylon Chamber of Commerce to take up this venture by obtaining a needs assessment from its members and working with the government and university authorities to highlight areas that the private sector require as priority.

Shortcomings
A shortcoming that exists in all areas of Public Service today is employment of individuals not suited for the work they are tasked to do. This is applicable to even the private sector. One can imagine the fate of children who find themselves under the guidance of teachers who are merely teaching to get their pay check. What is lacking is accountability, poor planning by the Education Ministry and the inadequate standards of teaching and means to benchmark the teaching practiced throughout the island.

The inadequacies have resulted in the emergence of a shadow education system involving tuition to which children going to private schools and even international schools have found themselves trapped into. The tuition mania is a shadow education system that the Education Ministry of Sri Lanka has no control over and shows no interest in countering at all. While Sri Lanka's standard of education may have been commendable decades ago - today the requirement is for more creative and practical approaches to studies. Children should no longer be moulded into bookworms - forced to memorize school curriculum’s and duplicate teacher notes at examinations. Yet this is exactly what is happening. Students are being forced to memorize their textbooks and very few teachers want to indulge the child in intellectual dialogue or arouse the child's creativity and innovativeness.

This trend is carried forward to university level as well, which is why young graduates find themselves in limbo when they start employment. This is completely the opposite to what the commercial world is looking for when seeking suitable employees. They want people who can think, who will approach problems in a different way. But how can children think out of the box when they have been trained to only memorize and duplicate what is in the text books.

English language is another area that the Education Ministry should immediately address. There is no point in introducing English to schools if there are no competent teachers to teach English. If there are no English teachers, appointing any graduate for the post will not do.

The Ministry should immediately address the problem by inviting effective and efficient retired teachers or perhaps even inviting teachers from India (Kerala) under the Indo-Lanka Trade Agreement.

The Ministry of Education should realise that they are engaged in imparting education to the children of Sri Lanka to build up a new generation. As such there is urgency to ensure that children of all the schools in the island receive adequate knowledge of the society they live in. Just as history is important for the children to feel a sense of belonging and pride, children need to be told what the labour market is demanding, what their career options are, what areas they could find employment in. Periodically, the children must be counselled and helped to find out what skills they are good at.

With limited subjects available in the course curriculum most students end up taking subjects they are mentally unfit for and which completely upsets their entire career and life. Therefore, they need a lot of guidance to help them decide what subjects they should take up and of course there is need for appraisal tests - so that the children can discover whether they will fit into a particular area/industry. Many countries abroad are introducing plenty of vocational training programmes in the schools to enable children to develop skills that will even help kick start an entrepreneurial venture as an option.
Sri Lanka needs to wake up to reality. If Sri Lanka is to move forward we need to create a relationship between the country's educational system and the job market - better now than never.

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