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Education Inequality

Sri Lanka offers free primary and secondary schooling, and adult literacy rates are among the highest in Asia. But a lack of quality plagues their system. Longstanding disparities in education exist between the more prosperous regions and the impoverished regions. More than 50,000 children between the ages 5 to 17 have never attended school, and 28 percent of youth are neither in school nor employed. Overall, quality issues plague the education system and have resulted in low completion rates, with less than 10 percent of adults having completed secondary school.

Massive Resource and Teacher Shortages

A major detriment to educational quality is the shortage of teachers within the country, especially in conflict-affected areas. Of primary and secondary teachers, only an average of 60 percent have received the minimum teacher training required. Additionally, many schools either have no library or an inadequate library filled with old books that are not engaging for children. With 85 percent of the rural population living below the poverty line, purchasing quality reading materials is typically not an option. Yet the main cause of poverty among the bottom 40 percent of the population is the poor quality of education.

In many parts of the country, boys and girls are enrolled in school in equal numbers, and Sri Lankans are adopting more progressive attitudes toward gender equity in education. However, in several regions, girls still face discrimination and barriers to education. This is particularly true in the Tamil tea plantation area and the central highlands area. In these locations, girls often work long hours for low wages, which prevents them from attending school and produces a literacy gender gap.