Dilrook Kannangara

Forced by India, successive governments since 2012 have invested disproportionate amounts of money in schools in estate communities. From a layman’s point of view, it is a good” thing and it will bring good” outcomes. In reality, that’s not how things work. In fact, the outcome of it will be disastrous for Sri Lanka. Instead, the government must make proportionate investments in education without favoring any one community. Past neglect is not an excuse to over-invest in schools in estate areas. Taxpayer funds are collected equally from every Sri Lankan and must be spent the same way. No favoring one community over another in education.

Sri Lanka has own examples of this happening in the past. The government elected in 1970 built the Jaffna University to address a concern among northern communities. They were uneasy at that time to travel and live in Colombo or Kandy for their university education; particularly women. A university in Jaffna would address it as they could travel to university from home. Unfortunately, it did not lead to the development of the north. Far from it. What it only did was breed more greed leading to violence. It led to cheating at exams to get into university which in turn led to standardization which failed to bring equity to communities. Some even blame it for terrorism. What’s worse is most students who gained a free tertiary education from the north left the country. They are the biggest brain drain burden on Sri Lanka!

The solution is not to increase investments in education. Taxpayers simply cannot afford to pocket out any more money for education. They are taxed to the maximum now while brain drain continues to drain out most of it. Pouring more into this bucket with a massive hole is worthless and is a crime against taxpayers and the national economy.

Overall, Sri Lanka keeps failing itself thanks to do-good” policies that must be sustained by taxpayers without proportionate benefits reaching them or the nation.

A worldwide study including Sri Lanka on civil wars was carried out by researchers Paul Collier and Anke Hoeffler in a World Bank study in 2000. The research looked into what causes civil wars – grievances or greed? Their conclusion was that greed was responsible for most civil wars since World War 2 which included Sri Lanka’s civil wars too. This predictive model when applied to the mindless but merciful act of Sri Lankan government wasting a disproportionate amount of taxpayer money in estate schools will backfire very badly for Sri Lanka.