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Untold Story of Sri Lanka: Paradox in Education, ICT and Development in Post—Colony

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Managing the Post-Colony South Asia Focus

Part of the book series: Managing the Post-Colony ((MAPOCO))

Abstract

This chapter investigates Sri Lankan education, human development and economic development, against the backdrop of colonization and globalization and explores how colonialization affects some of the factors with different realities. The free education policy of Sri Lanka after independence has improved the quality of education as well as the literacy rate of the country. Sri Lanka has a comparatively high Human Capital Index and which has been identified as responsible for better position of human development compared to many other countries. But, computer literacy rate in Sri Lanka is quite low and disparities align with regional development disparities. Regional disparities can be linked to emergence of Colombo as the center of administration. This itself  is an effect of colonization and subsequent globalization, resulting in deep regional disparity. Kannangara's philosophy focused on reversing colonial impact by empowering country’s future generations for breaking the chains of poverty and colonialism through education. But incongruence of development strategies impacts regional disparities of computer literacy despite high literacy.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. The Open University of Sri Lanka, Nugegoda, Sri Lanka

    Nalin Abeysekara

  2. Rajarata University of Sri Lanka, Mihintale, Anuradhapura, Sri Lanka

    Yashoda Bandara

Authors
  1. Nalin Abeysekara
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  2. Yashoda Bandara
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Correspondence to Nalin Abeysekara .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Indian Institute of Management, Calcutta, West Bengal, India

    Nimruji Jammulamadaka

  2. Karachi School of Business and Leadership, Karachi, Pakistan

    Shoaib Ul-Haq

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Abeysekara, N., Bandara, Y. (2022). Untold Story of Sri Lanka: Paradox in Education, ICT and Development in Post—Colony. In: Jammulamadaka, N., Ul-Haq, S. (eds) Managing the Post-Colony South Asia Focus. Managing the Post-Colony. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-19-2988-5_4

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