Lanka’s primary education system, worthy of emulation - UNICEF

The UNICEF global initiative to provide all children a primary education by 2015 has commended Sri Lanka’s primary education system as an example to other countries.

The UNICEF praised Sri Lanka for its achievement of 98 percent of children finishing primary school, and “setting an example for other countries to follow by raising the compulsory age of education to 16”. Although Sri Lanka has made tremendous progress in this regard, the Government, as part of a global initiative conducted by UNICEF, is exploring the reasons why some children drop out and measures to keep them in school until they complete their education.

The Ministry of Education, UNICEF and UNESCO Institute of Statistics (UIS), with support from AusAID, recently unveiled a joint study on ‘Out of School Children’ at a workshop dedicated to finding solutions for school drop-outs. The study is part of the Global Initiative on Out-of-Schools Children conducted by UNICEF and UIS, to investigate where, how many and why children are out of school or at risk of dropping out.

The study looks at obstacles to enrolment of children in school and identifies measures to encourage children to complete their education. At the workshop, Education Minister Bandula Gunawardena said the study has identified poverty, parents’ illiteracy, distance to school and various disabilities as the main reasons for some children avoiding school. According to the Out of School Study, poverty is the number one risk factor for Sri Lankan children to not attend schools and these children - poor girls living in plantations, poor primary-school-age children in urban areas and lower secondary boys - are engaged in child labour.

The study recommends provincial and community action to identify and support such children to get back to school, measures to end child labour and provisions to increase access for children with disabilities, among other recommendations. “Sri Lanka has an excellent record of bringing children aged five to 14 years into school, but out-of-school children often face deep-rooted inequalities and disparities.

By focused targeting of excluded children combined with social protection measures, Sri Lanka is on track to meet the goals of all children completing primary school by 2015,” UNICEF Deputy Representative to Sri Lanka Antonia De Meo said.

The workshop showcased innovations to reach vulnerable children and proposals on specific actions to meet the national goals of compulsory education for all children aged five to 16.