ADB to provide $ 500m financial support

The Asian Development Bank (ADB) last week finalised a combined $500 million financial support to the government's reforms and development initiatives.

The agreements on two key projects were signed by Finance Ministry Secretary Dr P. B. Jayasundera and ADB President Takehiko Nakao in Manila.

Under the Education Sector Development Program, the ADB loans will finance the development of a national student assessment framework, which integrates school assessments with external exams to improve pass rates, and introduce a technology stream to allow secondary school graduates to move easily into vocational courses.

School facilities will be upgraded and training and placement of teachers carried out to raise the number of students studying science and commerce. School principals and education agency staff will be trained to improve school leadership, management, and planning, and a financing facility will be developed to maintain upgraded equipment and facilities.

The ADB has recognised the issues in the education sector and the assistance needed. According to Country Director of the ADB office in Sri Lanka, Rita O' Sullivan, the current system needs a major overhaul so that young people with skills could enter the labour market once they move on from secondary schools. This is now essential in this digital age where technological skills and knowledge are at the heart of successful and sustainable economies.

The loan marks the first results-based lending program approved by the ADB.

Payments will be linked to the achievement of results such as the roll out of a full curriculum in schools, implementation of a technology stream, or training principal teachers. The program supports the Government's Education Sector Development Framework and Program for 2013-2017.

Sri Lanka has achieved universal primary enrolment in elementary schooling and high literacy rates. It has also invested heavily in modernising secondary school infrastructure, but at the senior secondary level, completion and pass rates are less impressive. Six percent of students entering grade one each year make it to university, and about a third of all school graduates enter the labour market without proper academic qualifications or skills training, resulting in a jobless rate of 18% among 15 to 24-year-olds.

Currently many schools, particularly in rural areas do not offer the key subjects of science, mathematics, and English, which makes it difficult for graduates to move into post secondary education. Many schools also lack the facilities such as fully equipped classrooms or science laboratories to provide modern and relevant schooling.