Sri Lanka Education Sector Development Project

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The Education Sector Development Project (ESDP) in Sri Lanka will support the country's Education Sector Development Framework and Program (ESDFP) 2006-2010 by: promoting equitable access to basic education (grades 1-9) and secondary education (grades 10-13); improving the quality of education, enhancing the economic efficiency and equity of resource allocation, and distribution within the education system, and, by strengthening education governance, and service delivery. The project is organized according to four themes, reflecting the cardinal policy initiatives of the Government's Education Sector Development Framework and Program (ESDFP): 1. Promotion of equitable access to basic and secondary education, entails implementing demand side initiatives to promote school attendance and completion of the basic education (grades 1-9) cycle; upgrading the network of public schools to ease geographical constraints to equitable access to high quality basic, and secondary education; strengthening special education programs for children with special learning needs; and, strengthening non-formal education programs for adolescents requiring skills to enter the labor market. 2. This theme - improving the quality of education - is designed to promote cognitive achievement levels, associative competencies, and attitudinal skills, and includes curriculum restructuring and upgrading; teacher framework and system development to enhance the motivation, competencies and performance of teachers; and, modernization of the examinations and testing system. 3. Enhancing the economic efficiency and equity of resource allocation includes the establishment of a medium-term expenditure framework for education; the development of a long-term indicative rolling plan for the education sector; and, the establishment of a public expenditure and quality education tracking system (PEQETS) for public investment in education. 4. Finally, strengthening education governance and service delivery will introduce a balanced control model of school based management, to improve relevant school level decision making and administration, as well as an organizational capacity analysis of the education system, and, implementation of capacity building programs at central and provincial levels. Furthermore, a human resource strategy will be developed to strengthen the skills of education managers and administrators, education policy, leadership, management and strategy development, and, link as well skills-building activities with current, and anticipated needs of the education system.