IPS Researchers Highlight School-level Factors Hindering Sri Lanka’s Secondary Education

11 April 2018
Ministry of Education of Sri Lanka

IPS Director of Research, Nisha Arunatilake, and IPS Research Officer, Ashani Abayasekara, recently pointed out that Sri Lanka’s secondary level education outcomes are constrained by several school-level factors, including lack of qualified and experienced teachers and principals, low teacher motivation, and poor school infrastructure in remote provincial schools. Addressing teacher quality concerns, primarily by improving pre-service teacher training opportunities and conducting systematic teacher recruitment and deployment, is essential in improving Sri Lanka’s quality of education, they noted.

These remarks were made at a presentation held at the Ministry of Education of Sri Lanka, at the invitation of the Secretary to the Ministry, based on two recent IPS publications carried out using School Census data from the Ministry: Better Schools for Better O-Level Results in Sri Lanka and Are there Good Quality Teachers for All Classrooms in Sri Lanka?

The Secretary to the Ministry, Sunil Hettiarachchi, and several other key education sector stakeholders were present at the event, which was held on 11 April 2018.