The power of youth in co-creating education in Sri Lanka
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When learners are meaningfully involved in shaping what and how they learn, co-creating education moves from a slogan to a practical reality. The United Nations General Assembly in 2018 declared 24 January as the International Day of Education, focusing on the role of education in promoting peace and development. And also, all of us need to have inclusive and equitable quality education, which will give us lifelong opportunities. If we analyse countries worldwide, education is one of the most important tools for achieving gender equality and breaking the cycle of poverty for many, including all age groups. Sri Lanka can be considered as one of the countries that is blessed with free education, which has given mileage for the country as the best in the human resource index in South Asia. In the 2025 Human Development Index (HDI) released by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), Sri Lanka is ranked 89th out of 193 countries, leading the South Asian region with strong achievements in education, health, and income.We should understand the value of free education in the Sri Lankan context. As per Khosla (2019), “Sri Lanka has shocked the world with its success in its system of education. Within less than forty years of independence, the number of schools has increased by 50 percent. In fact, the number of students has increased by 300 percent”. We should not forget the name of Dr. C.W.W. Kannangara, Father of Free Education, in this respect. It took him 16 years of lobbying and advocating in the State Council before his plan of free education became a reality in Ceylon in 1945. The implementation of this free education scheme put an end to the social inequality that was inherently promoted by the colonial education system.
Sri Lanka needs to understand the challenges in the current education as well. In Sri Lanka, we can observe a student weighing 25 kilos bringing a schoolbag of 10 kilos! Most of the children coming under the category of grades six to ten have around ten subjects per day, questioning whether Sri Lankan educationists have done justice to our next generation (which we need to discuss in a separate article). The schoolbag problem can be considered as only part of the real problem in education in Sri Lanka. There is a grave need for a major reform in the education system in Sri Lanka in terms of many aspects. But up to now, Sri Lanka has failed to have a proper, comprehensive situational analysis of school education and University education. If we analyse the education reforms and best practices in countries, they have mainly focused on lifelong learning, citizenship, competency, and employability. More importantly, quality education does not depend not only on wealth but also on governance, coherence, and professional discipline. Countries where educational reforms were successfully practiced considered education as a lifelong process of building capabilities that aligned with national identity, economic transformation, and social well-being.
This year’s theme for the International Day of Education, ‘The Power of Youth in Co-Creating Education,’ is highly relevant in the Sri Lankan context, as it highlights the urgent need for a paradigm shift in education by placing our next generation at the centre of educational transformation.”. In this context, it is important to reflect on the valid and applicable definition given for “graduate” by Weliwitiye Sri Soratha Thero. Weliwitiye Sri Soratha Thero was a distinguished Buddhist monk and scholar renowned for his instrumental role in founding Sri Lanka’s Piriven University system and the University of Sri Jayewardenepura. If we want to define a
“graduate,” the Weliwitiye Sri Soratha Thero, pioneer of the University of Sri Jayewardenepura, offers great insight.
“It is our mission to present society with an intellectual, not merely to breed graduates. If one endeavors to transform this sacred abode into a place where degrees are sold, or one in which students are given degrees in a mere mechanical fashion, it will only lead the university as well as the country into disgrace. If our graduates have not proven the expected intellectualismtheir degree claims they possess, people will indubitably conclude that our university is a ‘store’ where degrees are ‘sold.’ Thus, everybody affiliated with the university should keep in mind not to engage in any act that will undermine the quality of our degree and research work.1”
I would like to elaborate on the term “expected intellectualism” mentioned by Reverend Weliwitiye Sri Soratha Thero. An intellectual is not merely someone who is educated but one who engages in critical thinking, continuous learning, research, and, most importantly, honest self-reflection about society. As discussed earlier, countries that have successfully implemented education reforms have paid close attention to nurturing this form of intellectualism among their citizens. Building such reflective, thoughtful individuals has become one of the most vital dimensions of meaningful education reform.
Sri Lanka needs to understand the power of youth as co-creators in the entire education process. This is one of the essential requirements for the main factor in our education reform as well.I think this is one of the essential requirements to build a developed nation with wisdom and discipline.
References
1Commemoration speech of Rev Weliwitiye Sri Soratha Thero (http://www.sjp.ac.lk/news/commemoration-speech-on-rev-weliwitiye-sri-soratha-thero/
(The writer is a Professor in Management Studies, Open University of Sri Lanka and you can reach Professor Abeysekera at nabey@ou.ac.lk )
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