by Jehan Perera

The ongoing 63rd session of the United Nations Human Rights Council, which runs from September 7 to October 7, 2026, in Geneva is important to Sri Lanka. Its outcome will send a signal to other international actors, including the European Union, as to whether Sri Lanka’s reform policy is on track. The written update on Sri Lanka, prepared by the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights under High Commissioner Volker Türk and presented by Deputy High Commissioner Nada Al-Nashif, has taken a more holistic approach to the government’s performance over the past year. It acknowledged the progress Sri Lanka has made under the NPP government in relation to accountability for financial fraud and other economic crimes. At the same time, the High Commissioner’s update made clear that progress in relation to economic crime cannot be equated with progress in relation to accountability for grave human rights violations committed during the armed conflict and in other periods of political violence.

The government may have felt sufficiently confident that its response to the High Commissioner’s update could be handled by its representative in Geneva and did not require the attendance of Foreign Minister Vijitha Herath. Sri Lanka’s representative Sumith Dassanayake called for a fundamental review of country-specific mandates within the UN Human Rights Council. Sri Lanka has been facing repeated scrutiny in the form of successive UNHRC resolutions from 2012 onwards. Ambassador Dassanayake argued that such mandates should not continue indefinitely and must be regularly assessed against measurable objectives and tangible outcomes. This may reflect confidence that its record of reform is beginning to receive recognition internationally. The reports and statements at the Human Rights Council acknowledged progress in the government’s efforts to address corruption and economic crime.

The government’s anti-corruption drive has included investigations into allegations involving individuals who held the highest political offices in the country. The arrest of former President Ranil Wickremesinghe in connection with alleged misuse of public funds, and the investigation into the controversial SriLankan Airlines Airbus transaction involving former President Mahinda Rajapaksa’s son, are examples of the reach of these investigations. The arrest of SLPP National Organiser and Member of Parliament Namal Rajapaksa in connection with allegations relating to the Airbus purchase scandal has also demonstrated that the government is willing to pursue cases involving politically powerful figures.

Wide Range

The ongoing investigations appear to encompass a wide range of parliamentarians and government members, both past and present. They suggest that accountability for corruption is not being confined to lower-level officials or to individuals who lack political influence. This is precisely the kind of accountability that the public has long demanded and that previous governments have too often failed to deliver. The government is also reaching into the upper levels of the military hierarchies of the past. The case in which 11 young men, most of them Tamil, disappeared after being abducted in Colombo between 2008 and 2009 involved allegations that some families were asked to pay ransoms. The investigation into this case has reached senior military figures. The willingness to pursue such cases is important because it challenges the assumption that those who exercised power during the war are beyond the reach of the law. Such cases would provide a practical test of whether the government’s commitment to accountability for economic crimes is part of a broader commitment to the rule of law.

Success in prosecuting corruption cannot substitute for justice for those who were unlawfully killed, disappeared, tortured or otherwise victimised. The UN report noted that there had been no recognition or accountability for crimes under international law, gross human rights violations and serious violations of international humanitarian law committed by all parties during the war. The government has yet to establish a credible and effective process to address the many cases of enforced disappearance, extrajudicial killing, torture and other serious violations. The government needs to take the international commitments it has inherited on human rights issues seriously. It needs to adopt a multi-pronged approach and go beyond focusing primarily on financial and corruption-related accountability.

Need Action

As a member of the international community, Sri Lanka has a responsibility to abide by the commitments it has made. It cannot selectively uphold international obligations postponing those that are politically difficult. Also, as a small country, Sri Lanka has a self-interest in ensuring the survival of international law, which is all that it has to protect it from the depredations of the bigger international actors. The erosion of international law by powerful states makes it all the more important that smaller states uphold the principles on which the international system is based. Sri Lanka cannot credibly appeal to international law when it is threatened from outside while disregarding its own obligations within. Sri Lanka also needs to win the confidence of its own population that it is committed to justice and equality for all. Public opinion polls and community-level research have disclosed that ethnic and religious minorities are appreciative of the sense of greater security they enjoy under the present government from ethnic or religious extremists.

But a sense of security is not the same as the fulfilment of rights. As far as the Tamil people are concerned, the government has yet to deliver on several of its specific promises. These include the long-standing problems of missing persons, the release of political prisoners who have been members of Tamil militant organisations, and the return of land taken over for military purposes during the war. The issue of Buddhist statues and archaeological sites found on their properties which are then taken from their control continue to trouble them especially as they see no signs of resolution of those disputes. The issue of pastureland in the east of the country in Mylathamadu is particularly concerning to them as they see orders by successive presidents, both President Ranil Wickremesinghe and President Anura Kumara Dissanayake, being disregarded on the ground. The Mylathamadu pastureland dispute is where traditional Tamil dairy farmers have engaged in multi-year protests against the ongoing encroachment of their ancestral grazing lands by Sinhalese crop cultivators relocated under government development schemes.

The government’s failure to hold Provincial Council elections is particularly troubling. The provincial council system is the only one that can provide the Tamil people and other ethnic minorities the opportunity to wield political power and exercise a measure of self-determination in the areas in which they are the numerical majority. The continued postponement of Provincial Council elections therefore has consequences that go beyond an ordinary electoral delay. It deprives communities of an important constitutional avenue for democratic participation and power-sharing. The ethnic and religious minorities appreciate what the government is doing in the larger national interest, but they must not be made to feel that their special concerns are being ignored. The government cannot resolve Sri Lanka’s entire legacy of rights violations overnight. But it does need to demonstrate that it is willing to move forward on multiple fronts, not only on a few.

by Hasini Lecamwasam

Brain drain in Sri Lanka is at an all-time high. The latest Human Flight and Brain Drain Index for 2024 shows that we are 16^th of 175 countries on this count, and first in South Asia. That this is a crisis goes without saying. Brain drain affects all sectors, and is a huge strain on the resources of a developing country. Particularly in Sri Lanka, where considerable public investment is made in the moulding of professionals through the system of free education, this amounts to transferring the resources of poorer countries to richer ones with top migration destinations. It is, therefore, important to consider the push and pull factors behind skilled outmigration, specifically from the public university system of Sri Lanka, a key focus of the Kuppi column.

From frustration to exit

Several bitter realities in our crumbling public university system act as push factors in the migration decisions of academics. Many essays on this column have, over several years, attempted to highlight numerous aspects of this erosion. Perhaps, primary among them is the lack of adequate funding, which has debilitating ramifications for the system: very little investment is made in the up-keep of infrastructure (and even less in its expansion), resulting in serious constraints in accommodating growing batches of students and the wellbeing of the staff (particularly in regional universities); research funding is negligible, severely curtailing academics’ ability to effectively discharge their primary duty of teaching which should ideally be informed by their research (and the research of others, access to which is also, unfortunately, mediated by funding); a funding crunch also means a slash in (or greater constraints on) recruitments, increasing the workloads of academics, currently in service, and eating into the quality of their teaching and research.

What recruitments are done frustrate those with any faith in merit. As many of our interventions in this column have shown, recruitment processes are characterised by archaic selection criteria that place very little weight on a candidate’s postgraduate growth and the advantages of interdisciplinary training. Added to this is the general preference for ‘culturally compliant’ candidates who would not rock the boat too much. The combined effect is that those with the capacity and spirit to try out innovations in education are discouraged from joining or staying on in the public university system. Some, or many, of them may instead seek appointments abroad.

A thread that binds all of these problems together is pervasive hierarchy which, again, many interventions on this column have sought to highlight. It is the interest in preserving hierarchy that leads to the preference for alumni in recruitment processes. Hierarchy within universities can be particularly frustrating for younger faculty and women, who typically have to bear the brunt of the workload of their senior, often male, colleagues. In a context of funding, and, therefore, recruitment, restrictions, this translates into a disproportionate burden being placed on junior (usually female) faculty, seriously hindering their prospects of growing into successful academics due to the time constraints within which they have to operate. Junior academics, therefore, are more likely to look to educational institutions abroad for what they hope would be a different work culture that respects them more.

Ideological ruses

On top of these structural frustrations are also the workings of neoliberal ideology. For one, the nature of relations between the global metropole and peripheral countries like Sri Lanka largely dictates what is desirable and what is not. The apparent lifestyles of Western countries – from food to clothing, housing, appliances, and so on – have continued to lure people from the periphery with the promise of a ‘better’ life, alongside better career advancement opportunities. This, of course, masks much of the struggle that goes on behind the scenes to survive in Western societies. For instance, in most cases highly attractive public infrastructure such as roads, public transport, clean air, quality control of food, and so on belie the astronomical privatised costs of healthcare and education. Health insurance is usually mandatory and steep in most high-income settings, while even subsidised education (for which eligibility criteria are strict) creates a serious dent in household earnings. Of course, the happy images of glossy trams and gleeful international travellers don’t convey this.

A second ideological ruse is the myth of greater opportunities and recognition abroad. While there is no denying that local skilled sectors – be it higher education, health, civil service, or private white-collar positions – are replete with issues that inhibit merit-based professional advancement, the notion that things are fundamentally different in Western countries stems from an uninformed optimism. As is now increasingly known and discussed, Western labour markets are notoriously racialised, and equivalent skills are rarely treated as such. Instead, it is usually demanded that skilled migrants clear certain formal examinations in their host countries. In fields like medicine, this is followed by an interview that may also be racially prejudiced. Once these initial steps are cleared, remuneration reverts to square one irrespective of experience accumulated abroad, not to mention the many subtle aggressions, rejections, and trials one has to go through in the negotiation of everyday life. In the many cases where professional qualifications are used as leverage for a move abroad, sights are set on a better future for one’s children, which again is informed by the misplaced faith in greater opportunities and a lack of awareness of the factors outlined above. Needless to say, in the global swing to the Right, things have become even more challenging. In such a context, considering the few rare cases where skilled migrants live extremely comfortable lives as the norm becomes a dangerous misconception.

The two ideological pull factors mentioned above are complemented by a push factor, which has to do with a highly classed understanding of what a white-collar professional is due in their society. Many of these aspirations are clearly articulated in academic trade union action demanding separate quotas for school entry, increased fuel allowances, winning back the presently stalled vehicle permit scheme, salary hikes, and so on. While working people have every right to agitate for better material conditions, insofar as it remains unconnected to a broader movement for improving the conditions of the lot of the working class, it remains self-serving and very much within the class logic of capitalist society. Since these demands are articulated as a means of maintaining distinction, it is clear that they are not envisaged as part of a class movement. The frustration of not having these needs for distinction satisfied may push some to seek greener pastures abroad, at least financially, (perhaps as a means of social mobility based on it), only to be disappointed on most occasions.

What is to be done?

Addressing the systemic push factors listed above requires, first and foremost, greater allocations for free public higher education. This would immediately translate into more recruitments and less work per academic, and better research and teaching in the long haul. An increase in funding would also ideally lead to greater infrastructural investments, especially including improving the living conditions of those who work in regional universities amid untold hardships. Next, fairer, more creative, and, therefore, more effective recruitment policies are badly needed to attract talented individuals to university positions. Rather than carving out a ‘special category’ for academics to achieve this purpose, which is informed by a classed logic, this needs to be done through fundamental reforms in recruitment processes. Third, a persistent attack on the entrenched hierarchy within universities through internal reform is much called for. Reforming recruitment practices will go a long way towards addressing this. Measures should also be taken to introduce more stringent policies against SGBV (not to mention ragging, even though it is not directly connected to brain drain). Such measures would create a safer, fairer, and more attractive workplace, which would give more reasons for people to stay.

On top of greater allocations, we also need a transformation of our aspirations themselves if this situation is to change. That necessitates a kind of education capable of questioning the ‘paradise’ conception of Western societies, and lays bare their colonial material and ideological dimensions, in both their historical and contemporary manifestations. These colonial understandings of the ‘good life’, moreover, have devastating ecological implications for the planet, not to mention social justice. An education with the ability to transform this mindset would hopefully prove to be more than a mere path to social mobility, rather being a tool of social emancipation that renders mobility moot.

(Hasini Lecamwasam is with the Department of Political Science, 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 Dr Laksiri Fernando

“Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world.”

– Nelson Mandela

Apart from Nelson Mandela, there have been many philosophers and social activists who have emphasised the importance of educational reforms for social change and development. Among these were Confucius, Plato, Aristotle, Karl Marx, Mahatma Gandhi, Benjamin Franklin, Albert Einstein, etc. We here, however, are not going to discuss the whole range of philosophical and world issues.

We are focusing on Sri Lanka and raising some crucial issues in the school and university education. The educational system in Sri Lanka is not a bad system. I have taught in Sri Lanka and Australia and in some other countries at the university level. Likewise, my wife did teach in secondary schools in Sri Lanka and Australia. Our experience is that most Sri Lankan students are equal to Australian students intellectually, although their sphere of knowledge is narrower and limited due primarily to lack English knowledge. The students and also the teachers have the same predicament due to the same reason. However, the introduction of English language merely would not resolve the educational crisis.

There are two problematics usually identified in the educational system in general. First, is the funding difficulty. AI Overview says, “Sri Lanka spends one of the smallest shares of its national income on education in the entire world, leaving schools and universities with severe shortages.” Even figures are given in the AI Overview. However, this article does not directly address this problem.

Second, is the mismatch between the educational and student products from schools and universities and the requirements of the economy and the country. Again, the AI Overview says the following on the problem. “Sri Lanka faces a severe mismatch between its educational system and its economy, resulting in high youth unemployment and a shortage of job-ready graduates.” This is something that this article is trying to address, but not through a description of the problem, but making some ‘radical and rational proposals.’

School education

If we first focus on the school education, one radical change that I can propose is to reduce the school years to 12, from 13. While most countries still have this traditional 13-year schooling system, there are some countries, including Germany, who have experimented the 12-year school system. Although still there are debates on the merits and demerits of these changes, for a developing country like Sri Lanka the benefits would be more and immense.

The world has seen the reduction of age for voting, legal adulthood, and marriage from 21 to 18 in almost all countries, since 1970s. The main reason for this change has been the enlarging maturity of youth. But this change has not been taken into consideration in education, unfortunately.

In the case of education, the possibilities of rapid or increased development have enlarged more than any other field. One reason for this possibility has been the development of IT (information technology) and AI (artificial intelligence). The reduction of school years also can give students more motivation and confidence. Even in my case (in early 1960s), I would have preferred to enter the university before the age of 18. The country and any government should keep the confidence/trust on the youth. Youth should be encouraged and motivated to do better.

There is, however, another need in Sri Lanka to protect children from abusive social media and internet. Like in Australia, there can be a ‘ban’ on social media for children under the age of 16. This is a task mainly for the parents. It has to be also understood that social media provides important information for children’s knowledge and development. Therefore, it is a task for the parents and particularly teachers to gather this positive information and provide them to the children. The schools should utilise this opportunity.

The reduction of school years also will make some financial ‘savings’ in the educational system. Even the families will benefit from these changes, in economic and social terms. The spending on education in Sri Lanka is one of the lowest in the world, without exceeding 2% of the GDP. In the 2026 budget, the allocation for schools was around Rs 160 billion. The Ministry should not reduce the school budget in the case of the implementation of this proposal, but allocate the budget rationally to benefit the school system better than the present.

The reduction of school years can be at the primary education, reducing it from five to four, although this can affect the present Grade 5 scholarship examination. It should not be at Grade 4. Even at present the scholarship selections do not work well given that majority of students are not mature enough to pass the examination. According to the recent results (September 2026), while 289,867 students sat for the examination, only 56,000 students got qualified for the scholarships.

Sri Lanka should have a better system, more students getting qualified for the scholarships. The way to do it is to have the examinations at Grade 8. By this time more and more students will be mature enough to sit for and get qualified enough for a competitive scholarship examination. If the student number sitting for the examination is around 300,000, at least 200,000 students should be able to receive scholarships. This would be a relief and assistance to parents, while students are motivated to study further and better.

From the primary education, Sinhala, Tamil and English language education should be introduced utilising the information technology. Switzerland can be an example. In Switzerland, in addition to the official language in a specific Canton, English and another language (French, German or Italian) is introduced at the primary education.

While mathematics should be the primary skill that the primary school children should acquire, they also should be allowed to involve in sports and arts (music, dancing, painting, etc). They also could be taught the country’s history within the context of world history. This article, however, does not go into the details of the curricula.

If the primary education is properly done, the students will be able to, ‘take-off’ during the period of junior secondary period (Grade 5-8). The teaching in this period should focus more on Mathematics, Science, English and Global Knowledge. The medium of instructions could be Sinhala or Tamil. However, the schools should give a prominent place to English.

The education for G.C.E. (Ordinary Level) examination could be two years as at present. However, English should be a compulsory subject for the examination, whether students pass or fail. English should be considered not as a ‘colonial inheritance,’ but a Lingua Franca. This means an international language. Every school also should select another (one) international language like Hindi, Chinese, Japanese, French, German, etc. for the secondary level students to learn during the first year.

The main promotion of students for G.C.E. (Advanced Level) should be for sciences. Arts mean singing, dancing, poetry, painting, etc. Sociology, Political Science, History, Finance and Management are not Arts. They are social sciences. This change of understanding and naming also should be in the university system. Even with this change of understanding and promotion, the main focus at the Advance Level should be on natural sciences. The country should produce scientists, technologists and skilled workers to develop and build up the country. The artists would emerge naturally also with the support of a changed school system.

In Universities

Radical changes are necessary not only in the school system, but also in the universities and university education. Every year, while around 160,000 students qualify for admissions to universities, the average intake is around 40,000. Although this is an improvement from the past, still the existing capacities in universities are not properly utilised. I am talking about the public universities only.

In all 17 universities, the average student number altogether throughout years has been around 130,000. This means one university averagely cater to only around 7,600. Of course, there are some universities cater, may be to the double of this number.

However, overall capacities in universities are not properly utilised. Universities at least should cater to 50,000 students individually and annually. One way of doing this is to have two sessions per day, and this means some students are enrolled for evening classes. This might not be possible or appropriate in some remote areas. However, this can be done in Colombo and other urban areas.

I have seen evening universities in Hong Kong, Japan and even Australia. This will allow some students to work in the morning and attend classes in the evening. Of course, this should not be done in the whole week, but some days during the week and at least on Saturdays during the weekend. Although the Open University and Colombo University are already running courses in this direction, this can be expanded to cater to more students. If I am not mistaken, the Colombo University evening courses are limited to postgraduate studies.

University education should be completely in English

. If some students are incapable in doing so, they should be given the beginning year to learn English. English should not be considered a British or colonial language. It is the past and not the present. As I stated earlier, English is a lingua franca, a common international language.

Another problematic in the university education is the imbalance between Arts and Sciences. In the first place, the universities should not call the social sciences, Arts. The names of the present faculties should be changed. If there are departments catering to music, singing, dancing, and paintings, etc, those can be under a Faculty of Arts. But economics, political science, sociology, and even history should be under a Faculty of Social Sciences.

This is not merely a name change. Those subjects should be learned, taught and researched as ‘sciences’ to mean social sciences. There is a new trend to create faculties of management. That is a good trend which should be strengthened further.

When you consider the present university entrance or Advanced Level examinations, there are overwhelmingly ‘arts’ students. This has been a vicious cycle. Those who enter universities as arts students, graduate as arts graduates, and go and teach arts subjects and produce overwhelmingly arts students. It would take some time to change this trend. What should be done, in the meanwhile, in universities is to enrol these students for subjects like healthcare, nursing, tourism, business, and produce them for employment opportunities.

Sri Lanka’s educational system is not a bad system although there are some weaknesses to rectify and opportunities to promote. The above are some initial ideas with the readiness to accept criticisms and/or different views. However, the reduction of the school years to 12, instead of 13, does appear a must not only in Sri Lanka but also in other countries. Sri Lanka can take a pioneering initiative, exemplary to other countries. There can be an initiative to propose and discuss this matter with the UNESCO (United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation) and other relevant organisations and countries.

In summary, the proposals in this article are as follows:

* To reduce the number of school years from 13 to 12.

Introduce English as an international language (lingua franca), in addition to Sinhala and Tamil from the primary school years.

* Promote Scientific Studies in schools instead of what has been mistakenly called Arts.

* Make English as the medium of instructions in all universities allowing the disadvantaged students to obtain special assistance.

* Increase the number of university admissions exponentially to suit the country’s requirements.

* Promote universities to conduct evening sessions allowing students to work and study.

* Rename the so-called Arts Faculties into Social Sciences and limit the Arts to music, singing, dancing, painting, etc.