Harsha Aturupane

The impact of school quality, socioeconomic factors, and child health on students’ academic performance: evidence from Sri Lankan primary schools

One of the eight Millennium Development Goals is that all children in developing countries should complete primary education. Much progress has been made toward this goal, but completing primary school does not ensure that students attain basic literacy and numeracy skills. Indeed, there is ample evidence that many children in developing countries are not learning these basic skills. This raises the question: What can schools and communities do to increase the learning that takes place in schools? Sri Lanka exemplifies these issues. It has achieved universal primary completion, but many Sri Lankan primary school students perform poorly on academic tests. This paper uses unusually rich data from Sri Lanka to investigate the determinants of academic performance, as measured by achievement tests, of Grade 4 students. At the child and household level, educated parents, better nutrition, high daily attendance, enrollment in private tutoring classes, exercise books, electric lighting, and children’s books at home all appear to increase learning, while hearing problems have a strong negative effect. Among school variables, principals’ and teachers’ years of experience, collaborating with other schools in a ‘school family,’ and meetings between parents and teachers all appear to have positive impacts on students’ scores. Estimates that exclude some of the variables available in the unusually rich data yield different results, which suggests that results based on less complete data are likely to suffer from omitted variable bias. A final section provides recommendations for education policies in Sri Lanka.

Building the Skills for Economic Growth and Competitiveness in Sri Lanka

Despite internal conflict and the global financial crisis, Sri Lanka has made remarkable progress in the past decade, enjoying healthy economic growth and substantially reducing poverty. Moreover, Sri Lankans are the best-educated people in South Asia: the country has a 98 percent literacy rate, widespread access, high completion rates in both primary and secondary education, and gender parity in general education. Chapter two describes the general education and training system in Sri Lanka, especially the TVET sector. Chapter three examines the main drivers of skills demand and skills mismatches and gaps in Sri Lanka. Chapter four studies the relationship between education, training, and labor market outcomes, including skills already available in the workforce. Chapters five and six analyze factors affecting the skills supply system, such as cost, financing, and governance (chapter 5) and private sector provision (chapter six). Chapter seven briefly reviews firm-based training in Sri Lanka based on evidence from the employer survey. Chapter eight assesses workforce development policies in Sri Lanka based on the World Banks Systems Approach for Better Education Results (SABER) framework. Finally, chapter nine provides the summary of main findings and outlines possibilities for the way forward in skills development in Sri Lanka.

Returns to education in Sri Lanka: a pseudo-panel approach

This study employs a pseudo-panel approach to estimate the returns to education among income earners in Sri Lanka. Pseudo-panel data are constructed from nine repeated cross sections of Sri Lankas Labor Force Survey data from 1997 to 2008, for workers born during 1953–1974. The results show that for males, one extra year of education increases monthly earnings by about 5% using the pseudo-panel estimation rather than 9% as in the ordinary least-squares (OLS) estimation. This indicates that not controlling for unobservables such as ability and motivation biases the OLS estimation of returns upwards by about 4% on average, driven mainly by what happens in urban areas. It also suggests that males with higher ability seem to be acquiring more years of education. This is contrary to what has been observed recently in countries such as Thailand [Warunsiri, S., and R. McNown. 2010. “The Return to Education in Thailand: A Pseudo-Panel Approach.” World Development 38 (1): 1616–1625], where the opportunity cost of education seems to be high, such that high-ability individuals leave education for the labour market.

An Assessment of the Impacts of Sri Lanka’s Programme for School Improvement and School Report Card Programme on Students’ Academic Progress

Abstract This paper examines two education programmes in Sri Lanka: the Programme for School Improvement (PSI), which decentralises decision-making power, and the School Report Card Programme (SRCP), which was designed to provide parents and other community members with information on the characteristics and performance of their local schools. Using a difference in differences identification strategy, it finds the following results. First, the PSI programme significantly increased Math and English reading test scores among Grade 4 students, but not first language (Sinhalese or Tamil) test scores. However, PSI has had no effect on any test scores of Grade 8 students. In contrast, the SRCP had no significant impacts on any test scores in either grade, and further inquiries revealed that the SRCP was never really implemented. Second, the paper examined the impact of both programmes on teacher and school principal variables. Overall, few effects were found, and in some cases effects were found that one would associate with reduced school quality. On a more positive note, the PSI programme does appear to have led schools to form School Development Committees (SDCs), as the programme stipulates, to establish a list of school priorities and to implement projects funded through local fundraising.

Teaching English as a second language in Sri Lankan primary schools: opportunity and pedagogy

ABSTRACT Policy guidelines in Sri Lanka prescribe how and for how long English should be taught as a second language in primary education but practices on the ground may deviate. Opportunities for teaching and learning and pedagogy are key aspects of the process of learning. Using a large-scale survey this paper addresses (i) how much time is allocated to the teaching of English and how much time is lost, (ii) how English teachers use their time in primary education classrooms and (iii) the factors associated with student-centred learning and on academic learning in general. Around a quarter of the class time is lost through timetabling, teacher absenteeism, lesson start and finish times and teacher off task activity. Teachers who spend more time teaching in class are more likely to be in rural or estate schools and in schools with more facilities, and to have attended the Primary English Language Programme in the past. Teachers who spend more time on student-centred activities are more likely to be teaching Grade 3 than Grade 5, using remedial methods and holding an official ‘appointment’ as an English teacher. Policy implications for Sri Lanka are considered and points of comparison with policies and practices elsewhere raised.

Sri Lanka Education Sector Assessment

A country’s education system plays a pivotal role in promoting economic growth and shared prosperity.Sri Lanka has enjoyed high school-attainment and enrollment rates for several decades. However, it still faces major challenges in the education sector, and these challenges undermine the country’s inclusive growth goal and its ambition to become a competitive upper-middle-income country.The authors of Sri Lanka Education Sector Assessment: Achievements, Challenges, and Policy Options offer a thorough review of Sri Lanka’s education sector—from early childhood education through higher education.With this book, they attempt to answer three questions: • How is Sri Lanka’s education system performing, especially with respect to participation rates, learning outcomes, and labor market outcomes? • How can the country address the challenges at each stage of the education process, taking into account both country and international experience and also best practices? • Which policy actions should Sri Lanka make a priority for the short and medium term? The authors identify the most critical constraints on performance and present strategic priorities and policy options to address them. To attain inclusive growth and become globally competitive, Sri Lanka needs to embark on integrated reforms across all levels of education. These reforms must address both short-term skill shortages and long-term productivity. As Sri Lanka moves up the development ladder, the priorities of primary, secondary, and post secondary education must be aligned to meet the increasingly complex education and skill requirements.

Public Investment in Education: Benefits, Challenges and Opportunities

The chapter undertakes an analysis of public investment in education in Sri Lanka. Several dimensions of education benefits are examined within an econometric framework. These include the returns to education investment, the association between education and economic welfare, inter-generational benefits of investment in education and the promotion of gender equity, and the relationship between education and poverty reduction. The economic and social benefits of education are shown to be high. Next, several dimensions of public investment in education are analyzed. These cover the time trend of education investment, international comparisons of investment in education, and the pattern and composition of education expenditure. Over the period of the study public education expenditure is shown to have been low. The negative consequences of low investment in human capital is discussed. This is followed by an analysis of the institutional framework for the delivery of education services, and the incentives for performance in the system. The paper then studies the equity of public investment in education, which is shown to be high. The analysis concludes by recommending increased public investment in education, as it both yields strong economic and social benefits and enhances equity.