6% of GDP for Education: Who is telling the truth?

( July 27, 2012, Colombo, Sri Lanka Guardian) Federation of University Teachers’ Associations (FUTA) is asking the government to prioritise education and to invest in education. Towards this end FUTA has shown a concrete figure of measurement: the allocation on education as a percentage of GDP. This is a globally accepted measurement and the figure of 6% has been agreed to by the Sri Lankan government at many forums. FUTA has also shown that the government is not anywhere close to meeting this standard. Instead of engaging meaningfully with FUTA on this issue and trying to figure out a way of meeting its commitments, the government is spending its energy on trying to show not only that FUTA is wrong, but that these internationally accepted benchmarks which are used not only by Sri Lanka but all other countries are wrong! It is also bending over backwards to suggest that investing more in education is impossible and by implication, not necessary. This simply means, the government is saying it is NOT interested in education. 

The government is asking the public, the citizens of this country to take the responsibility for education. The government is stating over and over again, that it is simply not willing to allocate funds for education. It is saying this while it has shown its willingness to allocate funds for other, arguably less critical sectors. This is definitely not the mandate with which this government came into power. It is definitely not the legacy to which the constituent parties of this government can lay claim to. No other government has dared to so openly declare its intentions of divesting itself of the responsibility for education. Does this government want to be remembered as that which was responsible for the destruction of education in Sri Lanka?