Globalisation, employment and education: opportunity and division Angela W Little CIE seminar University of Sussex Nov

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

GrowthDivision Growth in Economy Household incomes Employment rate Educational participation Education and occupation expectations Declines in Poverty From Low income to lower middle income status 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