Education investment to rise in budget

Funds for education in the national budget will be raised to five percent of Sri Lanka’s GDP in the next 3 to 4 years, says Education Minister Susil Premajayantha.

Speaking at the recent annual conference of the Association of Accounting Technicians of Sri Lanka (AAT-SL) in Colombo, he said Sri Lanka has a literacy rate of 92.5% which is far ahead of other countries in the region such as India, Pakistan and Bangladesh.

“We are 92.5% literate by investing only 2.9% of the GDP in the field of education,” he said adding that the definition of literacy, which at the moment includes writing skills, understanding and communication should be changed in the next few years. “We have to add access to IT when we define literacy rate,” the minister said.

Ajith Nivard Cabraal, Central Bank Governor in his keynote address responded to a request made Lal Nanayakkara, President of the AATSL – in his earlier address - for government funding for AATSL to expand.

“The government doesn’t give money without any strings attached. The World Bank also gives the government money with strings attached and if the government gives you money it also will come with strings attached,” he said.

The governor said AAT has done well in the past 18 years showing that it can maintain itself independently, going on to state that with too many government controls coming in could dilute the independence. Accounting Technicians should be seen in a whole host of functions if they are to deliver value he further stated.

“As an AT, you have to keep pace with the developments that are taking place all the time,” he said, saying that skills learned many years ago become obsolete with time.This year’s conference was themed “Accounting Technicians Contribution Towards Development of SME Sector”.