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Sri Lanka

Information obtained from the CIA website and Operation World

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school. This is mainly due to the support of their alumni.

The Provincial Schools consist of the vast majority of schools in Sri Lanka. Funded and controlled by the local governments, many of these schools suffer from poor facilities and a shortage of teachers.

The Piriven Schools are monastic colleges for the education of Buddhist priests. These have been the centers of secondary and higher education in ancient times for lay people, as well. Piriven Schools are funded and maintained by the Ministry of Education. These young priests may gain entrance to state universities for higher religious studies.

There has been a considerable increase in the number of private schools in Sri Lanka, due to the emergence of the upper-middle class during the colonial era. These private schools follow the local curriculum set up by the Ministry of Education in the local language mediums of Sinhala, Tamil or English. Many of the private schools have access to newer facilities than state-run schools.

DressThe traditional dress for the women of Sri Lanka is a white sari worn with a white t-shirt, although Western garb is increasingly common for both men and women. Jeans are found everywhere, and batik is widely produced, worn and exported.

FoodSri Lanka has long been renowned for its spices. Since ancient times, traders came from all over the world, and the Dutch and Portuguese brought their food styles in their days of prominence, resulting in a rich diversity of cooking styles, food, and techniques.

The main staple of the diet in Sri Lanka is boiled or steamed rice served with curry. The main

curry consists of fish, chicken, pork or mutton (typically goat), as well as several other curries made with vegetables, lentils, and even fruit curries. Some other food items are pittu (a toasted rice and coconut mixture), kiribath (an unsweetened rice pudding made with coconut cream), cashews, and eggs.

Economy The civil war slowed and distorted what could have been a healthy economy. When the civil war ended in 2009, the government enacted an ambitious program of economic development projects, many of which were financed by loans from the Government of China, and a concerted effort to reconstruct its economy is underway.

Much of the national infrastructure was damaged, but tourism and foreign investment (especially from China) are rising quickly now that the war is over. The country’s financial burden of so many unemployed, displaced peoples is a major economic drain.

The major sources of income are textiles, tea, and tourism. The largest source is the remittances sent home by the many who work abroad, especially in the Gulf region. The average income per person is $2399 per year.

Location and GeographyThe Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka is known as the “Tear Drop of India,” because the land configuration looks like a teardrop. The island is located in the Indian Ocean and it is 25,332 square miles in size. Eighteen miles off the coast of Southeast India, between 5 and 10 degrees north latitude, Sri Lanka’s location affords it a tropical, hot and wet climate, with a distinct dry season from October to January. Its natural beauty, consisting of tropical forests, beaches, rolling coastal plains and south-central mountains, make it a world-famous tourist destination. The Mahaweli and other rivers provide fresh water to the population.

Capital CitySri Jayawardenapura Kotte, near by the city of Colombo, is the capital city, established in 2006 to perpetuate the name of the first president of Sri Lanka, Mr. Jayawardena. Colombo is the main port and industrial center, with a population of about 683,000.

Historical InfluencesA group of people known as the Sinhalese, probably from northern India, traveled to the island that became known as Ceylon late in the 6th century. Tamils later arrived from southern India, establishing a presence in the 14th century. The Dutch and Portuguese exerted influence in sections, but control was ultimately ceded to the British in 1796. Ceylon won independence in 1948, and changed its name to Sri Lanka in 1972. Tensions erupted between the Sinhalese majority and Tamil separatists (Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam or LTTE) in 1983.

After two decades of fighting, the government and LTTE formalized a cease-fire in February 2002, with Norway brokering peace negotiations. Violence between the LTTE and government forces intensified in 2006, but

the government re-conquered all rebel held territory in 2009. Twenty-five years of violence ended in May 2009. In addition to efforts to reconstruct its economy, the government has resettled more than 95 percent of those civilians who were displaced during the final phase of the conflict and released the vast majority of former LTTE combatants captured by Government Security Forces. At the same time, there has been little progress on more contentious and politically difficult issues, such as reaching a political settlement with Tamil-elected representatives and holding accountable those alleged to have been involved in human rights violations at the end of the war.

GovernmentSri Lanka has a republic-type government. The president is both chief of state and head of the government. The president is elected by popular vote for a six-year term and is eligible for a second term. A 225-member unicameral parliament is elected by popular vote on the basis of an open-list, proportional representation system by electoral district to serve six-year terms. Both the Supreme Court and Court of Appeals judges are appointed by the president. The legal system is a complex mix of English, Roman, Dutch and Tamil law. The universal voting age is 18.

People and SocietyThe population in Sri Lanka is approximately 21 million. The approximate percentages of the ethnic groups is 73 percent Sinhala (one of the few Buddhist people clusters with castes); 7.2 percent Sri Lankan Moors (of Arab-Tamil descent); 4.6 percent Indian Tamil (declining through war and flight from the country, and having faced massive displacement); 3.9 percent Sri Lankan Tamil, and 10 percent unspecified other South Asians.

ReligionBuddhism is the state religion, practiced by about 70 percent of the nation. Hindus make up 13 percent, 9 percent belong to Islam, 8 percent are Christians, and there are other minor religions. Although freedom of religion is assured by law, anti-conversion initiatives and sporadic violence against Christians occur as a result of some extreme Buddhist groups. Christianity is perceived as a foreign religion and evangelism is alleged as an unethical inducement to conversion.

LanguageThe official languages are Sinhala (an Indo-European language), 74 percent, and Tamil (Tamils and most Muslims), 18 percent. English is spoken competently by about 10 percent of the population and is referred to as the link language in the Constitution. Sri Lanka has a total of seven different languages.

EducationSri Lanka’s literacy rate (at the age of 15) is approximately 90 percent. The school life expectancy (primary to tertiary education) is usually a total of 13 years.

Most of the schools in Sri Lanka are a part of free education and they are maintained by the government. The three types of government schools are National, Provincial, and Pirivenas, with additional non-government and private schools.

The National Schools come under the direct control of the Ministry of Education, and they have direct funding from the ministry. Most of these schools were established during the colonial period and therefore are established institutions. These few National Schools are referred to as famous schools or elite schools, since they have a rich history and have better maintained facilities than the average public