ADB Loan to Boost Sri Lanka's Secondary Education System

MANILA, PHILIPPINES (27 October 2004) - ADB has approved a US$35 million loan to further help improve access to and the quality of secondary education in Sri Lanka.

The project will upgrade around 1,100 schools not supported under ADB's first Secondary Education Modernization Project and other earlier projects, and provide system-wide support to all the country's 2,300 secondary schools that offer full and limited curriculum.

"The project will address the fundamental problem of secondary education in Sri Lanka, which is the lack of universal access to quality education," says Ayako Inagaki, an ADB Education Specialist.

"The project will upgrade all target schools that do not meet an acceptable standard in terms of physical facilities, teaching-learning resources, teachers' skills, and principals' managerial capacities. This will minimize disparities across regions, gender, and ethnicity and ensure that every secondary school is capable of successfully teaching the required ordinary-level subjects in the curriculum."

Aside from basic rehabilitation and provision of furniture and equipment, the project will modernize the curriculum and teaching-learning methodologies by equipping some schools with science laboratories, computer facilities, and multimedia units.

It will also promote school-based management, setting up a pilot initiative to establish and run 100 school management councils through small start-up development grants. Zonal trainers/facilitators will enhance the capacity of school personnel to manage and sustain the facilities and improve teaching-learning activities.

The project also includes special support programs for poor and disadvantaged areas, such as an incentive program to attract teachers to rural and underprivileged areas, and stipends for poor students who are qualified to attend advanced-level classes.

Special attention will also be given to supporting Tamil-speaking teachers in the north-east region.

"Perceptions of inequality have been catalysts of conflict in Sri Lanka. As such, education reform should avoid reconstructing the system of inclusion that preceded the conflict," says Ms. Inagaki.

To address the low capacity of education officials at supervising and monitoring education activities, the project will conduct training and consulting services to strengthen the skills and competencies of provincial and zonal officials.

To make the education system more efficient and effective, the project will support Government policies and reform such as decentralizing education management, developing sustainable financing mechanisms for school operations, improving and computerizing the national testing and evaluation process, and modernizing the curriculum.

It will also strengthen the Ministry of Education in coordinating with provincial and zonal authorities, more consistently monitoring and evaluating activities, and implementing the education management information system begun under earlier ADB-backed projects.

Despite positive achievements in basic education, low investment in education results in disparities in educational quality. Sri Lanka spends only 2.8% of its gross domestic product on education compared with the 3.5% average in Asia.

As a result, pass rates at ordinary and advanced levels in the national examinations are low. Only 40% of ordinary level students qualify for advanced levels, 50% fail in Mathematics, and 70% fail in English.

Around 70% of the country's unemployed is between 14 and 25 years of age, indicating that schools are not preparing students for work. In fact, 18% of those with advanced level qualifications are unemployed because the conventional education system does not meet labor market requirements.

The total project cost is estimated at $47 million equivalent, of which $10.3 million will come from the Government and $1.7 million from the beneficiaries.

ADB's loan, which will meet 74.4% of the total cost, comes from its concessional Asian Development Fund and carries a 32-year term, including a grace period of 8 years. Interest rate is set at 1% per annum during the grace period and 1.5% per annum subsequently.

The Ministry of Education is the executing agency for the project, which is due for completion in December 2009.

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