Sri Lanka: Secondary Education Sector Improvement Program

Education / Secondary

Sri Lanka has recorded a steady economic growth of 5% per annum for the past decade. In 2019, it attained an upper middle-income country status with a per capita income of $4,020. To continue achieving higher incomes and better standards of living, the government commits to becoming a knowledge-based economy by 2025. Investments in human capital and education have been prioritized for economic diversification and enhanced productivity.

Alignment with country strategy and ADB's value addition: SESIP is aligned with ADB's Strategy 2030, ADB's Country Partnership Strategy 2018-2022 and contributes to pillar 1 (promoting economic diversification and productivity enhancement) by upgrading human capital. It is included in the ADB's Country Operations Business Plan 2020-2022. Although SESIP financing represents only 3.4% of government secondary education spending, it aims to bring transformational change to secondary education and will add value by (i) supporting integrated reforms in curriculum, pedagogy, and assessment that will influence the overall education sector; (ii) training teachers with innovative training modalities that will impact on both pre-service and in-service teacher training quality and modalities; and (iii) focusing efforts at the school level with dedicated resources to improve learning outcomes of the underperforming rural school students. ADB's extensive engagement and experience in implementing similar reforms in several other Asian countries can be utilized. ADB is a long-term, trusted partner of Sri Lanka in secondary education and skills development and has ongoing projects in skills development and higher education, where strong synergy with secondary education will be sought.

SESIP will support the government's secondary education sub-sector program, expected to cost $5.80 billion from 2020 to 2025. ADB will finance $195 million for the RBL and $5 million for the associated project loan, with the balance to be funded by the government. The program expenditure framework and financing plan is in Appendix 4. Considering the ongoing efforts being made by the government in preparing SESIP, financing for prior results may be considered in areas that are integral to curriculum and pedagogical reform -- central to the success of reform implementation.

The RBL program and the associated project loan will be implemented from May 2020 to December 2025. The MOE will be the executing agency for both RBL and investment project. A SESIP steering committee will be established, comprising MOE, National Education Commission, National Institute of Education, Department of Examinations, Provincial Council, Finance Commission, and PEAs and other key stakeholders. The steering committee will be headed by Secretary, MOE. A SESIP program unit will be established within MOE to coordinate and monitor the progress in achieving the DLIs as well as implement and monitor the procurement of consulting services under the investment project. Procurement for the associated project loan will be undertaken following the ADB Procurement Policy: Goods, Works, Non-consulting and Consulting Services (2017, as amended from time to time); and the ADB Procurement Regulations for ADB Borrowers: Goods, Works, Non-consulting and Consulting Services (2017, as amended from time to time).

Quality and relevance of secondary science, technology, mathematics, and commerce programs enhanced.

Provincial and school capacity to implement education reforms strengthened.

Sector management capacity strengthened.

The main beneficiaries of the program will be senior secondary students, particularly students from provinces and rural areas. The project preparation team met with students, parents, teachers, Principals and provincial education staff to seek their views and concerns and these have been incorporated in program design. While both boys and girls will benefit from improved STEM streams, the program provides a particular emphasis on attracting girls into STEM. Teachers will also benefit from training in improved pedagogy in STMC subjects. Principals, Deputy Principals and provincial and zonal education officers will benefit from educational leadership and management training. Other stakeholders of the project are staff from Ministry of Education, National Institute for Education and the Department of Education who will design and implement new curricula, pedagogies, assessments, and monitoring and evaluation systems. The stakeholders also include the School Development Committees, which prepare school development plans (SDP) and school management committees, including parents, community leaders, school management, provincial education authorities, who implement the decisions. There are no negatively affected people.

Parents, community members and representatives of vulnerable groups or students living in provincial and rural areas will contribute inputs to SDPs through school development committees. The program will enhance participation, confidence-building and interactive learning by children, including vulnerable children from the poorest families.

The civil society organizations working in the education sector include Room to Read, World Vision, Save the Children, and Child Fund. However, the priorities of these organizations are in the areas of primary and junior secondary levels. Therefore, the opportunities to collaborate with SESIP are minimal. The project will engage with school development societies for conducting the community awareness campaign on the new reforms i.e. curriculum reform, assessment reform, and awareness on SMTC subjects in future.