In search of a knowledge city

A vision to be realized:

Priyantha Ratnayake

Sri Lanka is to be developed as a knowledge hub in the region. This is a key target in relation to the proposed massive leap forward of the government in transforming the country into a strategically important economic centre in the world, as envisaged in the ‘Mahinda Chinthana Vision for the Future’.

For this purpose, a medium-term economic development program and an action plans are being developed by the Government in consultation with all stakeholders including the professionals, private sector, development partners and general public.

There is a wide recognition that the quality of a nation’s human capital formation is the most critical element in achieving the socio-economic development of a country. While economic growth is needed to generate more opportunities for people to earn their ways to a better life, human capital must be built up such a way that people will have the skills and abilities to take advantage of those opportunities.

Countries are facing new challenges due to increasing trend of economic globalization and restructuring in the world political and economic systems, and the rising requirements for knowledge and information within those systems.

Emerging order

The emerging new economic world order is based on knowledge, innovation and international collaboration. The industrial-aged business models are now been replaced by new business models utilizing human, financial and technological advances in the world. Therefore, it is necessary for Sri Lanka to align its development agenda with this new trend to take advantage from the emerging global economic conditions.

Sri Lanka’s economy is projected to grow by over six percent in 2010. Going beyond this target, Government plans for higher growth rate of eight percent over next five years with the aim of doubling country’s per capita income by 2016. This needs significant increase in private investment. At present, the domestic private investment in Sri Lanka is amount to 19 percent of the GDP. However, to achieve the estimated growth, this investment level needs to be increased to about 30 percent.

Having the correct policies in place, this is not an over ambitious target. There are number of economic sectors in which private organizations are keen to invest. What is necessary is creating an enabling environment for them to enter into the business. The potential sectors that could benefit from this private investment include higher education and skills development.

Sustainable environment

With peaceful and stable political environment, Sri Lanka has chosen the right strategy to dominate in the region, becoming a Knowledge Hub. This has been identified as a part of the long-term economic strategy to develop the country’s talent pool and accelerate its move into a knowledge-based economy. As the country is geared to take off and advance as a fast growing middle-income country it is critically important that Sri Lanka has the human capital needed to compete with global knowledge economy.

As generally understood, human capital can only be developed through a quality education and skill development system. However, it is very unlikely that current education system in Sri Lanka is capable of delivering the envisaged results, unless it is modified to meet the present challenges.

Drastic changes

Evidence suggests that our education system needs some critical changes. Many schools in the country, especially those located in the rural, disadvantaged areas and estate areas face with the lack of adequate infrastructure facilities. There is limited access to Science, Mathematics, ICT and English education. Though pupil-teacher ratio has increased to 18:1, there is an oversupply of teachers for certain subjects while there is a dearth of teachers for more demanding subjects.

The Government has promised to establish and maintain a viable network of 1000 secondary schools with all facilities such as water and sanitation, child friendly classrooms, science and multimedia laboratories, facilities to learn technical subjects, sport facilities, teaching and learning materials and libraries. As a consequence, there will not be a gap between schools in terms of service delivery. This will eliminate the regional disparities in the education system.

In this regard, the action taken by the Ministry of Education to appoint a Parliamentary Select Committee for revision of the existing Education Act with the objective of identifying necessary reforms to address current challenges is very appropriate and timely. People have placed much faith on this new Act to solve the inherent problems in the general education.

In relation to higher education needs, the capacity of state university system is limited. Not more than 17 percent of those who qualify for University education can gain admission to universities. The performance of local universities is well below the world standards. None of the universities in Sri Lanka is currently positioned among the top 100 universities in the world. The courses in universities are mostly supply driven and do not match with the needs of the economy.

As a result, the country suffered from the brain drain, as students traveled overseas for higher education and do not return after the graduation.

Positive attitude

Local graduates are not readily absorbed by the private sector for employment due to lack of attitude and skills such as initiative, trainability, flexibility, team-orientation, communication, positive work attitude and discipline. Although there is a strong research culture in the universities, it is largely academic and not geared to the market requirements.

These problems could only be rectified with heavy investments in general and higher education, a stronger linkage between academic courses and the labour market, and a new culture of learning which recognizes that the true value of knowledge acquisition has more to do with the development of the economy and society. Our higher education policy and strategies should be re-oriented to guide the preparation and development of suitably qualified human resources by the higher educational institutions to stimulate the socio-economic development of the country.

Economic development

Our higher education institutions, particularly the universities should be converted to the Centers of economic development. They should lead the regional development by localizing new technology and suggesting suitable interventions to realize the growth potentials of the regions where the university is located. The research studies in universities should focus more on settling local problems. This has to be done in addition to the research studies for overseas markets.

Our country should be among the top three countries for obtaining higher education in Asia, with internationally recognized courses that are recognized by local and global employers.

By 2020, at least three Sri Lankan universities should be among the top 100 universities in the world. This target could be achieved only through performance-oriented policy reforms, improving the quality of academic programs and improving the quality of teaching and administrative staff, and upgrading learning resources. Thus, Sri Lanka needs far reaching changes to its existing model of higher education and technical training.

The success of transforming Sri Lanka to a knowledge hub will greatly depend on our ability to grasp the opportunities by converting our existing inadequacies into competencies and strengths. It will also depend on the availability of enabling environment and infrastructure to attract prominent international research and education institutions. The concept of Knowledge City provides an attractive model for private investors in this field.

These are cities in which both the private and the public sectors value knowledge, nurture knowledge, spend money for acquiring knowledge, discover and disseminate knowledge to create products and services that add value and create wealth. Knowledge city will provide attractive working environment for foreign and local education, research and technology institutions to locate their business activities.

The writer is Director of National Planning Department, Ministry of Finance and Planning.