With the new decade before us its time to ask if the Sri Lankan education system is ready to meet the FIR (Fourth Industrial Revolution), and its attendant multiple challenges. The World Economic Forum article below explains how education systems in the world are preparing themselves for the FIR.According to the 2017 School Census just about 10% of all schools (total 10,000) offer science education. Even so, the number of students in those 1000 schools is dismally small. Only about 36,500 qualify for Advance Level Science education. And an even smaller number qualify for university science education. So what ails the system?Regular Policy Reviews, in an open & transparent manner are needed for understanding the issues and for recommending long-term solutions.
- Science & Math education are not attractive to students for multiple reasons. Students don’t have an adequate understanding of career prospects and future employment possibilities.
- The teaching content, methodology and approach for high-end learning & appropriate skill-sets for Math & Science are inadequate
- Science Technology Engineering Maths (STEM) has been a globally accepted system, but integration of STEM into the Sri Lankan education system is not complete
- Sri Lankan universities don’t feature in prestigious league tables which rank the best 100
The EFSL will begin a series of discussions on these issues and will publish Policy Briefs on the website.