Transforming Primary Education in Sri Lanka : From a 'Subject' of Education to a 'Stage' of Education

Sri Lanka is a lower-middle income country with a per capita income of approximately US$ 2,400, and a population of around 20 million people. Sri Lanka's high rate of literacy is due to its sustained growth through the twentieth century. Prima...

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Main Authors: Little, Angela, Aturupane, Harsha, Shojo, Mari
Format: Working Paper
Language:English
en_US
Published: World Bank, Washington, DC 2013
Subjects:
Online Access:http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/2013/07/18114932/transforming-primary-education-sri-lanka-subject-education-stage-education
http://hdl.handle.net/10986/16287
id okr-10986-16287
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spelling okr-10986-162872021-04-23T14:03:28Z Transforming Primary Education in Sri Lanka : From a 'Subject' of Education to a 'Stage' of Education Little, Angela Aturupane, Harsha Shojo, Mari CURRICULUM ENROLLMENT LITERACY PRIMARY EDUCATION SCHOOL BUDGET SCHOOL COHESION SCHOOL DISTRIBUTION SOCIAL EQUITY SUSTAINED GROWTH TEACHER TRAINING Sri Lanka is a lower-middle income country with a per capita income of approximately US$ 2,400, and a population of around 20 million people. Sri Lanka's high rate of literacy is due to its sustained growth through the twentieth century. Primary education spans the first five grades of schooling, grades 1-5. Student's progress automatically to lower secondary education for four years of education in grades 6-9 and then on to upper secondary education in grades 10-11 for a two year course that culminates in the General Certificate of Education Ordinary level examination (GCE O-L). The curriculum for primary education is designed separately from those for subsequent stages of education. The primary education curriculum stage is encapsulated in a primary curriculum framework that derives from extensive debate during the 1990s in connection with the recommendations in 1997 of the national education commission, the work of the technical committee on primary education appointed by the presidential task force and detailed implementation work by the primary education unit of the national institute of education. Since 2003 the National Educational Research Centre (NEREC) based at the University of Colombo has administered tests in first Language, Mathematics and English to grade 4 children in a sample of schools country-wide. In the 2009 assessments a cut-off percentage of 80 percent rather than 50 percent were 48 percent in First Language, 53 percent in Mathematics and just 19 percent in English. The budget of the national Ministry of education includes a separate budget line for primary education but this money is allocated only to the primary sections of national schools. Province, zone, division and school budget do not separate allocations and expenditure for primary and secondary. There is no reason in principle why separate budget lines could not be created for most types of expenditure. 2013-11-18T17:23:20Z 2013-11-18T17:23:20Z 2013-07 http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/2013/07/18114932/transforming-primary-education-sri-lanka-subject-education-stage-education http://hdl.handle.net/10986/16287 English en_US South Asia Human Development Sector Discussion Paper;No. 61 CC BY 3.0 IGO http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/igo World Bank World Bank, Washington, DC Publications & Research :: Working Paper Publications & Research South Asia Sri Lanka
repository_type Digital Repository
institution_category Foreign Institution
institution Digital Repositories
building World Bank Open Knowledge Repository
collection World Bank
language English
en_US
topic CURRICULUM
ENROLLMENT
LITERACY
PRIMARY EDUCATION
SCHOOL BUDGET
SCHOOL COHESION
SCHOOL DISTRIBUTION
SOCIAL EQUITY
SUSTAINED GROWTH
TEACHER TRAINING
spellingShingle CURRICULUM
ENROLLMENT
LITERACY
PRIMARY EDUCATION
SCHOOL BUDGET
SCHOOL COHESION
SCHOOL DISTRIBUTION
SOCIAL EQUITY
SUSTAINED GROWTH
TEACHER TRAINING
Little, Angela
Aturupane, Harsha
Shojo, Mari
Transforming Primary Education in Sri Lanka : From a 'Subject' of Education to a 'Stage' of Education
geographic_facet South Asia
Sri Lanka
relation South Asia Human Development Sector Discussion Paper;No. 61
description Sri Lanka is a lower-middle income country with a per capita income of approximately US$ 2,400, and a population of around 20 million people. Sri Lanka's high rate of literacy is due to its sustained growth through the twentieth century. Primary education spans the first five grades of schooling, grades 1-5. Student's progress automatically to lower secondary education for four years of education in grades 6-9 and then on to upper secondary education in grades 10-11 for a two year course that culminates in the General Certificate of Education Ordinary level examination (GCE O-L). The curriculum for primary education is designed separately from those for subsequent stages of education. The primary education curriculum stage is encapsulated in a primary curriculum framework that derives from extensive debate during the 1990s in connection with the recommendations in 1997 of the national education commission, the work of the technical committee on primary education appointed by the presidential task force and detailed implementation work by the primary education unit of the national institute of education. Since 2003 the National Educational Research Centre (NEREC) based at the University of Colombo has administered tests in first Language, Mathematics and English to grade 4 children in a sample of schools country-wide. In the 2009 assessments a cut-off percentage of 80 percent rather than 50 percent were 48 percent in First Language, 53 percent in Mathematics and just 19 percent in English. The budget of the national Ministry of education includes a separate budget line for primary education but this money is allocated only to the primary sections of national schools. Province, zone, division and school budget do not separate allocations and expenditure for primary and secondary. There is no reason in principle why separate budget lines could not be created for most types of expenditure.
format Publications & Research :: Working Paper
author Little, Angela
Aturupane, Harsha
Shojo, Mari
author_facet Little, Angela
Aturupane, Harsha
Shojo, Mari
author_sort Little, Angela
title Transforming Primary Education in Sri Lanka : From a 'Subject' of Education to a 'Stage' of Education
title_short Transforming Primary Education in Sri Lanka : From a 'Subject' of Education to a 'Stage' of Education
title_full Transforming Primary Education in Sri Lanka : From a 'Subject' of Education to a 'Stage' of Education
title_fullStr Transforming Primary Education in Sri Lanka : From a 'Subject' of Education to a 'Stage' of Education
title_full_unstemmed Transforming Primary Education in Sri Lanka : From a 'Subject' of Education to a 'Stage' of Education
title_sort transforming primary education in sri lanka : from a 'subject' of education to a 'stage' of education
publisher World Bank, Washington, DC
publishDate 2013
url http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/2013/07/18114932/transforming-primary-education-sri-lanka-subject-education-stage-education
http://hdl.handle.net/10986/16287
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