Education Reforms Must Begin with Equity

Education reforms in Sri Lanka are both necessary and long overdue. Few would dispute the need to modernise curricula, teaching methods and assessment systems. However, the manner in which reforms are conceived and implemented is as important as the reforms themselves. Regrettably, current proposals appear to overlook the educational realities faced by the poor, the underprivileged and the rural population. The rural education sector continues to suffer from severe deficiencies in basic infrastructure. In many remote areas, schools function with leaking roofs, inadequate classrooms, no proper toilets, unsafe water supply and almost no facilities for sports or extracurricular activities. Laboratories, libraries and other essential learning resources are conspicuously absent, let alone advanced facilities such as swimming pools that some urban schools enjoy. These disparities are not incidental; they are structural and longstanding. These shortcomings need to be addressed urgently.

Upali Weerasinghe