Globalisation, employment and education: opportunity and division

Angela W LittleCIE 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 DivisionGrowth 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

CurtinUniversity of Technology

Australia

BBABachelor of Business Administration

For the first time in Sri Lanka allthree years of study at the ICBT Campus

Mount Lavinia

ICBT CampusA 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