At a symposium on reconciliation organised by the National Peace Council last week, more than 250 religious clergy, civic activists and political representatives from different communities gathered to discuss the country’s future. Speaking at the event, Minister Bimal Rathnayake explained the government’s approach to national reconciliation. He said the government viewed the country’s recovery in terms of a three stage process. The first stage was stabilisation, the second was development and the third was transformation. Reconciliation, he implied, would come in that final stage. The participation of Opposition Leader Sajith Premadasa at the same symposium, and the constructive nature of his comments, strengthens that hope.

When the present NPP government took office in 2024, the country was emerging from one of the gravest crises in its post Independence history. The economic collapse of 2022 had led to shortages of fuel, food, medicines and electricity. Inflation soared, foreign reserves disappeared and long queues became part of daily life. The political upheaval that followed culminated in the resignation of former President Gotabaya Rajapaksa after mass public protests under the banner of the Aragalaya movement. The country was then governed by a leadership that spoke the language of reform and reconciliation but was widely perceived as lacking a direct popular mandate.

Sri Lanka’s past experience suggests that stabilisation and transformation cannot be treated as entirely separate stages. Postponing reconciliation until some future moment risks repeating the failures of the past. If transformation is endlessly delayed until a supposedly perfect moment arrives, there will always be new crises and new reasons for postponement. Minister Rathnayake’s contention that the government’s immediate priority has necessarily been stabilisation flows from the government’s awareness of the precarious situation the country is. Over the past two years, the government has succeeded to a significant extent in restoring economic and political stability. Inflation has reduced, shortages have ended and public institutions have regained a degree of functionality.

Guaranteed Changes

On the other hand, the country’s development continues to face challenges due to adverse global conditions, including disruptions caused by conflict in the Middle East and extreme weather events that have affected tourism, trade and the cost of living. The danger is that reconciliation may be indefinitely postponed in the name of stabilisation. This danger can be reduced if the government works proactively with the opposition and civil society to commence practical measures of transformation now rather than later. The participation of Opposition Leader Sajith Premadasa at the symposium, and the constructive nature of his comments, has strengthened the sense that bipartisan engagement on reconciliation may now be possible.

The urgency of transformation came through strongly in the presentations made by representatives of the Sri Lanka Tamil and Malaiyaha Tamil communities. ITAK parliamentarian S.Shritharan spoke of the frustration caused by unresolved post war issues in the north and east. He referred to disputes regarding land occupied during the war years, including controversies linked to Buddhist temples and state sponsored settlement activity in areas claimed by local communities. He also pointed to the continuing large scale presence of the security forces in the north and east nearly two decades after the end of the war. These grievances have remained central to Tamil political discourse since the end of the armed conflict in 2009. Families displaced by war continue to seek the return of ancestral lands. Civil society organisations in the north have repeatedly called for greater civilian control over local administration and a reduction in military involvement in civilian life.

Academic research and practical work on the ground have shown that reconciliation cannot be separated from questions of dignity, equality and justice. Former minister Mano Ganesan, leader of the Democratic People’s Front, focused on the longstanding problems faced by the Malaiyaha Tamil community. He spoke passionately about continuing housing shortages, landlessness and economic marginalisation, issues that have persisted since Independence. He also highlighted the devastating impact of recent extreme weather events on estate communities that remain socially and economically vulnerable. The condition of the Malaiyaha Tamil community remains one of the enduring social justice issues in Sri Lanka.

After Independence in 1948, a large proportion of them were denied citizenship and voting rights through legislation that rendered them stateless. Though citizenship rights were eventually restored, the social and economic consequences of exclusion continue to be felt generations later.

Many families still lack secure housing and land ownership despite their immense contribution to the country’s plantation economy. Minister Rathnayake’s responses to both these concerns were politically significant. He argued that recent political developments, including the declining influence of narrow ethnic politics across communities, indicated a major shift in public attitudes. According to him, the political ground has changed in ways that make it increasingly difficult for politicians who rely primarily on ethnic division and communal insecurity to retain public support.

Inter-Connected

There is evidence to support the assessment about the changing political grounding which sees future prospects in the resolution of long standing problems. . The economic collapse of 2022 affected all communities alike and generated a new politics centred on governance, anti corruption, accountability and economic justice. The Aragalaya protests brought together Sinhalese, Tamils and Muslims in a common demand for political change. Although ethnic grievances have not disappeared, the crisis created space for a broader understanding that the country’s future depends on cooperation rather than division. Opposition Leader Premadasa’s comments at the symposium reflected this changing political climate. He emphasised that national reconciliation could not be separated from economic justice and the need to address disparities between regions and social classes.v He also mentioned the need for civil society organisations to take this message to the community. This wider understanding of reconciliation is important because ethnic inequality and economic inequality have often reinforced each other in Sri Lanka’s history.

Academic studies have identified the denial of citizenship rights after Independence as a historic injustice that set back the Malaiyaha community for decades. The challenge now is to ensure that transformation becomes part of the stabilisation and development process itself. Practical first steps are both possible and necessary. The release of civilian lands still under state control, greater devolution of administrative authority, reduction of military involvement in civilian affairs, language equality in public administration and accelerated housing and land ownership programmes in the plantation sector are all measures that can begin immediately without waiting for a final stage of transformation.

The government’s recent commitment that provincial council elections will finally be held this year is therefore significant. These elections have been repeatedly postponed by successive governments. Holding them would not solve the ethnic conflict by itself. But it would signal a willingness to restore democratic institutions and share power in a meaningful way.

Sri Lanka has repeatedly postponed difficult reforms in the hope that a more convenient political moment would eventually arrive. But opportunities are invariably created and fought for instead of being provided as a gift by a benevolent government.

The present moment, shaped by the economic crisis and public demand for accountable government, offers a rare opportunity to move simultaneously towards stability, development and reconciliation. Provincial council elections can be the first meaningful step. But they must not be the last.

by Jehan Perera

In a significant move aimed at steering Sri Lanka’s environmental governance towards a more science-based and evidence-driven path, the Ministry of Environment has initiated a new collaborative mechanism to integrate leading researchers into national policy formulation and conservation planning.

The initiative was discussed at a high-level meeting chaired by Dr. Dammika Patabendi at the Ministry of Environment on Tuesday, where top environmental scientists, wildlife experts and researchers were invited to contribute towards what officials described as a “strategic transition” in the country’s environmental management framework.

The discussions focused on strengthening the scientific basis of environmental conservation programmes and national policy decisions while creating a more research-friendly environment for academics and field scientists engaged in biodiversity and ecological studies.

Particular attention was paid to long-standing concerns raised by researchers regarding procedural and operational difficulties encountered when conducting studies in collaboration with the Department of Wildlife Conservation and the Forest Department.

Minister Patabendi stressed the need for environmental policies to be guided by credible scientific data rather than ad hoc administrative decisions, ministry sources said.

Among the key proposals discussed was the establishment of a streamlined mechanism that would reduce bureaucratic obstacles faced by researchers in obtaining approvals, accessing field sites and sharing scientific findings with state institutions.

The Minister highlighted the importance of building stronger partnerships between policymakers and the scientific community at a time when Sri Lanka is grappling with escalating environmental challenges including deforestation, biodiversity loss, human-elephant conflict, climate-related disasters and ecosystem degradation.

Environmentalists attending the meeting had also highlighted the urgent necessity of incorporating empirical research into national decision-making processes to ensure long-term ecological sustainability and better resource management.

The meeting brought together several of Sri Lanka’s leading environmental researchers and academics including Rohan Pethiyagoda, Saminda Fernando, Sewwandi Jayakody, Samantha Gunasekara, Dinidu Devapura, Himesh Jayasinghe, Manoj Prasanna, Mendis Wickramasinghe and Suranjan Karunarathna.

Director General of Wildlife Conservation Ranjan Marasinghe also participated in the deliberations.

Officials said the proposed framework is expected to pave the way for a more transparent, data-oriented and scientifically credible environmental governance structure capable of addressing emerging conservation challenges more effectively.

The government expects the new mechanism to support the implementation of practical and scientifically robust programmes aimed at safeguarding Sri Lanka’s ecological future while enhancing cooperation between state agencies and the country’s growing community of environmental researchers.

By Ifham Nizam

Free Education has been with us for more than 80 years now. It predates independence. One of its clearest objectives was to give the people, far and wide, an equitable chance. Given the fragile economy we have, first dependent on export crops and now, on exporting labour, through a volatile manufacturing sector, education is seen as the foremost avenue of social mobility across classes. And it is true. A centrally driven education system, at primary, secondary, and tertiary levels, offered, and still offers, hope to thousands of working people in the country. It is part of a success story. The education sector has made great strides in branching out, establishing schools in remote areas. To those in the university system, the equalizing and larger democratic principle in action here is quite apparent. The District Quota system, expanding falteringly, to encompass students with disabilities and those with other special talents, has brought a large measure of diversity. Today, we have a youthful educated population, where the bottom line is not even the O/Levels, but A/Levels. Yet, inequalities persist and persist in ways that they have brought about a crisis.

Eighty years on, access to equitable education is a hard fought race undertaken by the populace. Finding a “good” school, sometimes, even a school, for their school going age children is a nightmare for many, from the struggling urban middle class to the single mother in a remote village. The 15 kilometer radius rule does give some measure of equity to many, but in urban areas across the country, schools are divided along class lines, not to mention ethnicity/language and gender. The schools in remote areas are understaffed and generally under-resourced.

Successive governments have tried to reform general education with new proposals, with proposals that would make it more accessible, less competitive and more empowering. However, the general education system itself has splintered between a state system and a smaller group of private schools that follow the state system and the international schools that remain, to date, fairly unregulated. English medium education in schools, offered largely in urban settings, and in schools catering to the middle class, has become popular. In an economy that is not thriving, many look outside, and where labour has become more and more an export commodity, the goals and parameters of education have somehow shifted. While the Kannangara Reforms were about empowering the population within the bourgeois class system we have come to operate in, the current goals of education are diversified and underscored by class interests; apparent in the way students are channeled into academic, vocational and labour streams. These ends may not easily match the expectations of the population, but it is the grim reality of our economic context today. If we continue in this vein, one can only think that inequalities along these channels will increase in the future. In my keen interest in the area, I begin conversations with interested parties and those who feel affected by the widening gap in access to an equitable education.

“Schools are heavily under-resourced in our area. The division has not seen an English teacher for years,” says an activist from Musali in the Northern Province. “A student had 2As and a C in the A/Levels. They were eligible to apply for the Town and Country Planning degree at Moratuwa University, but the degree programme demanded a B in English in the O/Level as a prerequisite, along with the appropriate Z score in the A/Levels. But this student had only an S in English. Another student had 8 As in the O/level examination, but failed their English… There are 22 to 23 schools in the district and only two or three English teachers. Teachers are appointed on various schemes, and they want the job. They take up the teaching position, at first, and then in about three months, somehow get a transfer and move to a school closer to where they reside or is in a more central place.”

Another activist, this time from Jaffna town itself, but working in the Northern Province as a whole, recounts a tale of how the transport system functions to enable long distance commuting of teachers from Jaffna to the peripheral areas of the north. As he says, two buses leave Karainagar (a seaside town located at one end of the Jaffna peninsula), and make their way, one going towards Mullaitivu and the other towards Madhu in the Mannar district, taking teachers (along with other travellers of course) to these destinations, every working day. I looked up the distance on Google. It takes more than three hours by car to travel from Karainagar to Madhu. He continues, “How can they teach after travelling this long a time?”

The dearth of teachers at rural schools seems to run deep. But the problem is not only with remote areas. A 12- year-old child, going to a school in a suburb of Colombo, accessed by low income families, tells me, “They don’t have English.” “What do you mean? Of course, there is English in your school.” He says he has never had an English class. English has always been of importance, and much time and money has gone into enhancing English instruction schools, but structural inequalities have exacerbated already existing divides in recent times, with competence in English becoming more and more a structural requirement in university admission and university. More and more study programmes are requiring qualification at the O/Levels or in the general subject of English at the A/Level, for admission.

Inequalities are not only with regard to English. For decades now, much of the conversation around university admission has been about how one should increase the numbers of science-based disciplines and science oriented faculties. Report after report on education, often commissioned by the state, underline this concern in their narratives. In fact, the problem of unemployment has been placed squarely at the feet of Arts disciplines and Arts students. There are too many Arts students is the mantra one hears repeatedly. This trend has slightly reversed since 2019; admission numbers show that science-based disciplines now account for more than half of university admissions—48.2% for Arts (Humanities, Social Sciences, Management/Commerce) and 51% in Science-based disciplines between 2019 and 2022. Whether the problem of employment will be solved through this measure, though, is doubtful; one does want to think it may address the issue at least partially.

However, there is a greater problem facing us concerning inequality in university admission. Figures for admission for 2022 show that (only) 20.1% of the total number of qualified students were admitted to the university in the Arts streams; while in the Science streams, the proportion was 37.0% of the total number of those qualified. A larger percentage of eligible students in the Arts streams is left out of university admission in comparison with the percentage left out in science- based streams. Again, if one looks at numbers, we see that for 2022/23, the highest percentages of students gaining admission to Science streams, out of the overall number of qualifying students, are from the districts of Colombo, Gampaha, and Galle, large metropolitan centres, while the lowest numbers are from Monaragala, Kilinochchi and Nuwara Eliya. Does this pattern not tell us something?

These numbers point to a geographical mapping of the political economy of class and ethnicity. I have more numbers. Of the 2911 schools out there, for grades 12-13 (A/Levels), only 1012 schools are 1AB (offering both Arts and Science streams), while 1899 schools are 1C (offering only Arts subjects) schools. Unfortunately, these numbers do not tell us where the 1AB schools are located within a district: urban/town/rural/remote from the centre.

We need to scrutinise these numbers for what they may mean in terms of equity. And, I do not want to proffer too narrow an analytic lens here. When we look at the overall situation, it does appear that rural and lower income students are in a severely disadvantaged position. It is clear that many students, in our general education system, are left out of an equitable education. And in saying this, I do not mean only science-based education or English. The exclusions point to a bigger malaise in our system, namely underfunding and under resourcing of schools, and the lack of a well thought-out national plan. My activist friend from Jaffna, continues: “It would be good to have primary and secondary level teachers, in some subjects at least, to be recruited from the area; they will be committed and may be induced to stay. They have a home there, a family.” I am not at all sure whether this is the solution or even a solution.

Ultimately, for my 12-year-old friend from my neighbourhood in Colombo, and his family, it might not matter whether there was an English teacher or not in his school. The realities of education do not point to such hope, or even expectation. His father and mother work in the informal sector in and around Colombo. His sisters are in West Asian countries, as domestic workers. I don’t know what he dreams of. “His teacher tells he’s artistic and draws well” his mother tells me. And then she takes off to do shramadana at her son’s school, forgoing her wage for the day, joined by other mothers, presumably, to get the school ready for the new term.

(Sivamohan Sumathy is Emeritus Professor, University of Peradeniya)

Kuppi is a politics and pedagogy happening on the margins of the lecture hall that parodies, subverts, and simultaneously reaffirms social hierarchies.

by Sivamohan Sumathy