Sri Lanka - Institut de statistique de l'Unesco

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Out-of-School Children in Sri Lanka: Country Study A study in 2008 carried out in 135 schools in 27 zones in all nine provinces found that 85 percent of schools had annual plans, minimally in small primary schools; however, in the majority of these schools the plans had been prepared by the principal, deputy principal and a few senior teachers without the expected participation of the School Development Society, past students, students, parents and community representatives (Coalition for Educational Development, 2008). There were complaints that the planning guidelines were complicated and that the delay in receiving funds and the inadequacy of funds had affected the implementation of plans (Jayaweera and Gunawardena, 2007). Nevertheless, this innovation has contributed towards increased effectiveness of the planning process, identification and inclusion of OOSC, and a better distribution of resources that could accelerate the task of bringing all children into the school system. A further innovation that has had positive consequences has been the focus on higher order processes and the accelerated learning campaign to improve student learning outcomes in core subjects; this is likely to reduce the incidence of dropout (World Bank, 2006–2010). An innovation in the management sphere has been the incorporation of efforts towards school-based management through the Programme for School Improvement (PSI); the intention is to empower stakeholders in the local community to become more involved in their school, as they are likely to be more sensitive to the needs of local children from disadvantaged families. Awareness campaigns for this programme were carried out and seed grants allocated to schools in 65 pilot zones under the ESDFP (MOE, 2006; World Bank, 2011a). An evaluation of selected primary schools found that, among other things, parents in poorer communities had become more aware of the importance of supporting children in their school work, and thereby ensuring their continued attendance in school (World Bank, 2011a). Another positive initiative has been the child-friendly schools programme sponsored by UNICEF which has had an impact on bringing OOSC to school, improving the quality of the teaching–learning process, and ensuring community participation in planning and management even in small, disadvantaged schools. The child-friendly approach needs however to be integrated in all schools. Monitoring The weakest aspect of management and delivery mechanisms is the absence of an effective monitoring process that ensures smooth implementation of policies and programmes and provides feedback for corrective action. Although the ESDFP has developed a Results-Based Monitoring and Evaluation Framework, which is expected to be used at all levels of implementation, in actual practice there is very little monitoring, as seen clearly in the poor enforcement of compulsory education regulations and minimal activities of District Child Development Committees. This weakness in monitoring stems from the lack of capacity of some members of school and office staff to engage in such tasks and/or the low priority accorded to tasks. There also appears to be structural weakness in the education sector caused by the marginalization of Divisional Offices in the planning, implementation and monitoring of education programmes, despite the fact that this office, unlike the zonal office, has a manageable number of schools and communities in its domain for implementation and ongoing monitoring of programmes. Availability of data Sri Lanka has comprehensive and efficient data-gathering and analysis procedures implemented by the national agency, the Department of Census and Statistics, and by the Central Bank and line ministries and other sectoral agencies such as the ministries of education, health and labour that focus on programmes for children in or out of school. Unfortunately research and evaluation studies are constrained by the fact that not all this information is in the public domain and accessible to data users perhaps due to resource limitations, and that accessing data within these institutions is a time-consuming process, as was experienced firsthand by this study. 68
Out-of-School Children in Sri Lanka: Country Study 4.5 Financial allocations and educational expenditure A major constraint in the education sector is limited financial resources available for implementation of policies. This is not a new problem. However, government expenditure on education has decreased in recent years both as a percentage of GDP and as a percentage of the total government budget. Public expenditure on education as a percentage of GDP fell from nearly five percent in the late 1960s to 2–3 percent in the 1980s, and as a percentage of total expenditure from around 16 percent to eight percent over the same period, with the advent of structural adjustment programmes. Since then, it has declined further from 2.7 percent of GDP in 2006 to 1.9 percent in 2010, and from 11 percent of total expenditure in 2006 to 8.1 percent in 2010. Social protection is viewed largely in terms of the provision of free state education and health services. These services have been complemented by welfare payments to some households under poverty alleviation programmes (two percent of total public expenditure) and through small-scale cash transfers offered to some families, for instance, by the Ministry of Social Services and the Department of Probation and Child Care (MOF, 2009). However, this has amounted to a very limited quantum of financial assistance. It has to be noted too that quantitative and qualitative improvement has depended heavily on donor assistance in recent decades from multilateral agencies such as the World Bank, Asian Development Bank, UNICEF, World Food Programme, UNFPA and UNESCO; bilateral agencies such as GIZ, JICA and DFID; and INGOs such Save the Children and Plan International. In the context of a lack of comprehensive information on the funds provided, it is only possible to estimate that donor contributions have made up about six percent of the total education budget. Since devolution to the provincial level, there have been two paths for financial allocations for recurrent and capital expenditure from the Ministry of Finance to the various levels of educational administration and to educational institutions. Funds are channelled to the central MOE to be allocated for administration at the national level, and through the Finance Commission for allocation to the provincial administrations. In the context of the wide regional disparities that prevail in the country, the Finance Commission is expected to assist in meeting the needs of each of the nine provinces and to allocate funds to achieve balanced regional development. It also accords priority to monitoring progress in enrolling OOSC in school (Finance Commission, 2009). Deviating from the tradition of allocating resources each year on a historical basis, the government, with assistance from the World Bank, introduced a norm-based unit cost resource allocation mechanism (NBUCRAM) in response to a suggestion by the National Education Commission. Since 2000, some funds have been allocated directly to schools for quality inputs according to this mechanism. Since 2006, the ESDFP, under its third theme of ‘increasing equity in the distribution of resources’, has implemented several new measures and has modified the formula in order to direct more resources to disadvantaged districts. This was accompanied by a move towards decentralization of financial authority to secondary schools through school-based grants for specific subjects. For more effective monitoring under the ESDFP, education officers and schools have been using a Results-Based Monitoring and Evaluation Framework. In addition, a Public Expenditure and Quality of Education Tracking System (PEQETS) is being gradually introduced. The impact of these monitoring tools is yet to be assessed. 69
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Ministry of Education
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© United Nations Children’s Fund
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Message of the Hon. Deputy Minister
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Message of the Secretary to the Min
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Acknowledgements CENWOR would like
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Acronyms 5DE Five Dimensions of Exc
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● ● Children in Dimension 4 are
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Framework of Actions on Education a
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Out-of-School Children in Sri Lanka
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Sri Lanka - Institut de statistique de l'Unesco

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