CLASSIFIED | POLITICS | TERRORISM | OPINION | VIEWS

Question of Private Education in Sri Lanka

Shenali Waduge

Opinion is divided on the question of private education and like all issues in Sri Lanka groups that are able to arouse emotions end up raising hell needlessly.

The most important question that anybody should keep in mind is that while the Government offers Free Education it does not mean that the Government is bound to offer jobs as well. However, the Sri Lankan graduates seem to have mentally concluded that not only is the Government bound to provide free education it is also bound to give them jobs.

The limited number of universities in Sri Lanka creates limited opportunity for the youth to enter higher education. This leads to parents who able to afford private education sending their children overseas for higher education. Foreign revenue is lost and there is also the possibility of these children ending up residing overseas having gained better employment.

The job market today has changed dramatically. We do not live in a stage where jobs are opened wide for all youth who graduate. Their careers depends on not so much on the theoretical foundation that they obtain from university education but their ability to practice it in a demanding work environment. Tragically, the university education of Sri Lanka is yet struggling to educate youth to meet the demands of the job market.

Companies today look for people who perform over people who have decorated paper qualifications. Thus the youth of today should realize that whether a child goes to one of the most elite schools in Colombo or just an ordinary school if he/she has the mindset and the thinking power that companies look for, that child will get the job. Time has broken the “we employ from …. School only” mentality and we are likely to see more dramatic changes taking place in the future as well.

This should give the youth from distant climes the hope they need and not encourage them to resort to demands and strike campaigns which will only go against them. No private sector company would ever want to give employment for those that ONLY DEMAND without showing WHAT THEY CAN DO.

Today the global job market is looking out for youth who have positive mindsets, good thinking skills and the attitude to perform using the right skills. The whole fuss of private education should be completely eliminated. We should encourage more youth to learn and what is wrong in offering the international qualifications locally if it means that our youth remain in Sri Lanka & foreign currency will also not be lost.

Those that prefer to shelter round Government backed free education and prefer to live in the Stone Age and attempt to draw other innocents into their selfish thinking are destined to remain in a docile stage forever. The will never progress in life.

I hope the youth are intelligent enough not to fall prey to these insurgents who seem to only glory in the media coverage given to them.

BACK TO LATEST NEWS

DISCLAIMER