Education is the back bone of the society. Sri Lanka’s education system has been praised by many for its success in providing widespread access to primary and secondary education and enabling the country to attain high human development levels. The policy of the government is to ensure that all citizens of the country have access to free education. However, anecdotal evidence suggests that the public encounters lots of problems in their children’s education and that there are various disparities in accessing free education.
While media reports on corruption in education are frequent, no systematic assessment has been done in Sri Lanka. A Help Line for victims of corruption in schools had been operated by TISL in 2007, together with the Ministry of Education, and received 84 complaints. To assist the Ministry in addressing the underlying sources of malpractices, and to provide a systematic assessment, TISL commissioned a study on the forms and extent of corruption in education in Sri Lanka to Prof. Amarasiri de Silva, Professor in Sociology of the University of Peradeniya. The main objective of this study is to provide a solid database and well-founded recommendations to the Ministry of Education.
This study conducted from June to September 2008 used a mix of qualitative and quantitative data. It was based on a survey of randomly obtained 1000 households, 100 teachers and 100 education officers and 59 detailed interviews with different informants in eleven GN divisions in the DS divisions of Kandy, Anuradhapura, Mahiyangana, Puttalam, Galle and Nuwaraeliya. Preliminary findings suggests that in the public perception, the education system has deteriorated due to politicization, unlawful appointments and transfers of teachers and principals, etc. The prestige of the teaching profession has declined. Provision of facilities such as loans and salary increments are also highly politicized. Crucially, school admissions are perceived as highly corrupt. The study also revealed that there is no consensus on how much should be charged as school fees from students.
The report and a position paper on corruption in education will be launched in end of January 2009.