By Ian
In the last 50 years Sri Lanka has made huge strides in the primary and secondary education. My estimate is that at least 90% or more of children of school going age are attending schools. Everything changes once the students sit for Advance Level Examination. For over 300,000 who sit for Advanced Level only 25,000 or so get admitted to the Universities.
Considering the better organized nature of the school system they could do more on the issues such as youth unemployment and lack of technically qualified personnel in the country. One way forward would be to in concurrence with the National Universities, Technical colleges (such as NIBM, Nursing Schools and German Tech) the Ministry of Education through the National Schools to introduce one & two years certificate level courses in areas few areas. This would be areas that require mostly class room training such as Accounting & Finance, Marketing Management, Human Resources Management, Sales Management, Supply & Logistics Management, Banking, Insurance, Leasing, Laboratory Technology, Basic levels of IT such as graphic design, etc and also areas that require limited practical training such as Motor Mechanism, Use of heavy machinery, Agriculture and Food processing, performing arts etc. This would enable the students after their A-Levels to continue in vocational training in the school system and obtain a certificate level qualification.
