Globalisation, employment and education:
opportunity and division
Angela W Little
CIE seminar University of Sussex
Nov 11 2013
Sri Lanka
Globalisation
The accelerated movement of goods,
services, capital, people and ideas
across national borders
Background
• Imperialism, colonialism and contemporary
globalisation
• Introduction of monetarist neo-liberal policies
in industrialised countries
• International finance institutions – shift in
advice to poor countries – away from import
substitution towards economic and trade
liberalisation
• Sri Lanka’s position
• General approach
• Political landscape of education in Sri Lanka
Growth
Growth in
• Economy
• Household incomes
• Employment rate
• Educational participation
• Education and occupation
expectations
Declines in
• Poverty
From Low income to lower middle
income status
Division
• Worsening distribution of
household incomes
• Proportion with regular
employment decreases
• Female unemployment 2X male
• Occupational expectations widen
between social classes
• Access to IT and English
concentrated in urban areas
• Academic performance
differences by school type,
medium of instruction, location
and gender
Divisive civil war
• Frontier zones and transnational space
• Education changes attributable to
globalisation and education changes during
the era of globalisation
Curtin
University of Technology
Australia
BBA
Bachelor of Business Administration
For the first time in Sri Lanka all
three years of study at the ICBT Campus
Mount Lavinia
ICBT Campus
A member of Ceylinco
Consolidated
Curtin
Degree
Globalisation and Civil War
Early peace – later conflict
•
1931 first Asian country to enjoy universal suffrage and limited self rule
•
Peaceful transition to independence. In 1948 Sri Lanka was ‘an oasis of stability, peace and
order’ (de Silva, 1981)
•
Multi-party representative democracy in a socially plural society in which checks and
balances needed to protect rights of minorities
•
Breakdowns in checks and balances after independence e.g. disenfranchisement of Indian
Tamil labour
•
Emergence of Sinhala-Buddhist nationalism as a dominant political force
•
Official languages act of 1956
•
Emergence of ethno-nationalisms
•
Increasing state control of economic opportunities and political patronage in allocation of
opportunities in a slow growing economy
•
Restriction of independence of the civil service
Seeds of ethnic conflict, civil war and class conflict sown mid 1950s to mid 1970s
• Comparative analysis – early integrators and
later integrators
– Education as a means to common identities
– Coordinated education and economic policy
– Post secondary and higher education