Sri Lankan poems (ME GASE BOHO) in Sinhala language

Many orange fruits are in the tree.

But two are enough for my younger sister and me.

We are not bad children who are plucking excess fruits.

Democracy and Gender:

A Show Case in Sri Lanka

Godwin KodituwakkuDepartment of Research and Development

National Institute of Education

Sri Lanka

A presentation prepared for the Regional seminar on

Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) in

Action in Asia-Pacific Region

Under the Mobile Training Team (MIT) Project

Jointly organized by

UNESCO Bangkok / Islamabad / Hanoi / Jakarta / UNESCO IBE

Thailand National Commission for UNESCO

12-14 July 2010, Bangkok, Thailand

Let’s go through a journey of Sri Lanka

in three parts

First Part: Qualitative data

A boy and a girl from a Sri Lankan Primary

School. I prefer to prepare the present

slide as follows:

(Pl. See slide 2)

SMILE= GIRL= BOY (Both are smiling - with different styles)

Both boy and girl have

equal opportunities to

learn within rich

learning environments

But within a culturally accepted framework:

Which sometimes is more rigid on girls

Secondary class students with the teacher in a mixed school: Boys-Girls dichotomy?

No; Culturally sensitive good practice in a school

Both boys and girls

have a path in the

education system

without discrimination

The path may differ due to economic

difficulties creating discriminations

regionally or school wise.

But not in line with Gender.

There are 9765 schools throughout the island

to provide free education from Grade one upto

University Level

Fathers and mothers look after

both boys and girls while they

are schooling …

…and until their marriage.

A father and mother with

their daughter at the marriage

ceremony (Father is Godwin)

Women have free, equal and prominent

positions in the social life

Muslim Families too send their girl

children to schools. Some families,

however, prevent their girls from engaging

in higher education and arrange marriages

for them.

At a workshop lighting of

traditional oil lamp: Ladies

first

At a Buddhist temple:

Many women have gone abroad for blue colour jobs,

earning foreign exchange for Sri Lanka-

This has become a major income source for the country: Women Power

While earning money in foreign countries they enjoy a free life style different to

that of Sri Lanka: Free of traditional house wives role. As housewives do more

work than husbands – creating gender issue: A good topic for further research

Now let’s go to quantitative data

(Part two )

We know we have to depend on

national level data for

generalizations. Will try to

understand the position of

girls/women.

School enrolment rates shows the equal

opportunity for both boys and girlsSource: School Census 2007

Province

Gender

TotalMale Female

No. % No. %

Western 36977 50.64 36045 49.36 73022

Central 20700 51.03 19862 48.97 40562

Southern 20383 51.20 19425 48.80 39808

Northern 11484 50.81 11117 49.19 22601

Eastern 16749 51.10 16026 48.90 32772

North Western 19312 50.87 18649 49.13 37961

North Central 9814 50.44 9641 49.56 19455

Uva 11307 50.82 10942 49.18 22249

Sabragamuwa 15067 50.81 14589 49.19 29656

All admission 161793 50.86 156296 49.14 318089

Grade One new admission by gender and medium of study Source: School Census 2007

medium

GenderTotal

Male Female

No. % No. %

Sinhala

medium 123088 50.97 118402 49.03 241490

Tamil medium 47118 50.60 45993 49.40 93111

English

medium 0 0.00 40 100.00 40

All Schools 170206 50.86 164435 49.14 334641

Student population in the school system by grades

Grades Male percentage Female Percentage1 154744 51 149650 49

2 163288 51 156256 49

3 166781 51 161336 49

4 168090 51 162643 49

5 170495 51 164136 49

6 176275 51 169662 49

7 182642 51 175150 49

8 168421 50 166357 50

9 151601 50 151920 50

10 145940 49 149858 51

11 133635 49 138463 51

11 Repeat 30735 49 31428 51

12 Science 15071 53 13366 47

12 Arts 19609 34 38008 66

12 Commerce 18741 50 18787 50

13 Science 15146 53 13609 47

Arts 18744 35 35537 65

Commerce 19755 52 18114 48

Functioning schools by sex of students and medium of instruction

Source: School Census 2007

Medium

School by sex of students

TotalBoys Girls Mixed

No. % No. % No. %

Sinhala medium only 48 0.74 62 0.97 6304 98.29 6414

Tamil medium only 22 0.78 26 0.93 2732 98.06 2786

Sinhala & Tamil medium only 4 10.81 8 21.62 25 67.57 37

Sinhala & English medium 35 11.32 62 20.06 212 68.61 309

Tamil & English medium 13 11.92 25 22.94 71 65.14 109

Sinhala, Tamil & English medium 8 27.58 11 37.93 10 34.48 29

All island 130 1.34 194 2.00 9,354 96.65 9,678

Students by Gender and Medium

Medium

Gender

TotalMale Female

No. % No. %

Sinhala

medium 1,428,368 50 1,443,369 50 2,871,737

Tamil medium 509,644 50 511,655 50 1,021,299

English

medium 20,441 41 28,850 59 49,291

All student 1,958,453 50 1,983,874 50 3,942,327

Participation rates in education by age and sex

Sex1971 1981

5-9 10-14 15-19 5-19 5-9 10-14 15-19 5-19

Male

Female

Total

61.1

60.2

60.9

72.1

67.6

69.9

36.5

32.4

34.5

57.9

54.6

56.3

85.9

85.4

85.6

82.9

82.0

82.5

40.1

41.8

40.9

70.3

70.2

70.2

Literacy rates in Sri Lanka according to Census in

1901, 1911, and 1921 by province and gender

Province 1901 1911 1921

Male Female Total Male Female Total Male Female Total

Western

Central

Southern

Northern

Eastern

North-Western

North-Central

Uva

Sabaragamuwa

42.6

26.0

32.8

42.2

27.9

37.8

37.2

23.0

31.1

14.6

3.5

5.9

6.0

3.1

4.9

1.0

0.9

2.7

29.5

15.8

19.6

42.2

16.1

23.1

20.8

12.5

18.3

48.9

32.4

38.3

47.4

30.6

44.6

42.1

26.3

34.3

21.2

4.9

9.5

10.6

4.7

8.1

2.0

2.2

3.5

42.0

22.8

29.1

33.5

21.3

33.3

27.9

17.8

24.1

64.7

46.3

56.9

62.4

45.7

61.8

55.2

37.3

50.7

36.8

11.5

20.5

23.8

8.8

18.5

4.5

6.8

10.6

51.8

30.0

38.7

43.0

27.5

43.1

33.8

23.1

32.8

Literacy rates in Sri Lanka by sex, 1900 – 2001

Year Literacy rate

Male Female Total

1900

1910

1920

1945

1955

1960

1970

1980

1944

2001

42.0

47.2

56.4

70.1

75.9

79.3

85.6

91.1

92.5

92.4

8.5

12.5

21.2

43.8

53.6

63.2

70.9

83.2

87.9

89.7

26.4

31.0

39.9

57.8

65.4

71.6

78.5

91.1

90.1

91.0

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

80

Grade 7 Grade 8 Grade 9 Grade 10

Drop Outs 2005

Male

Female

anc

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

80

Grade 7 Grade 8 Grade 9 Grade 10

Per

cen

tag

e

Repeaters - 2005

Male

Female

Examinations

• The Department of Examinations in Sri Lanka conducts public exams

at 3 stages

– Grade 5 Scholarship Exam

– Grade 11 G.C.E Ordinary Level Exam

– Grade 13 G.C.S. Advanced Level Exam

Results of Grade 5 Scholarship Examination – 2007

Gender No. Sat% Above cut

off%

Male 141487 49.92 15030 10.62

Female 141950 50.08 18864 13.29

G.C.E (O/L) Examination - 2006 School candidates (Sat for 6

subjects & above)

Source: Department of Examinations 2007

Gender

Applie

d for

Exam

% Sat for

Exam

% Passed 6

Subjects &

above %

A/L

Qualified %

Male 179332

47.53162195

47.2963136 38.93 48476 29.88

Female 197997

52.47180812

52.7178591 43.47 60907 33.69

G.C.E Advanced Level: Students who have failed all subjects

(2007)

Source: Department of Examinations 2007

Gender

G.C.E(A.L) Gender Distribution of

Students who failed all subjects

2007 Total

Male Female

Stream No. % No. %

Bio Science 2420 45.12 2944 54.88 5364

Physical Science 4900 73.25 1789 26.75 6689

Commerce 3434 72.62 1295 27.38 4729

Art 2124 70.80 876 29.20 3000

All Streams 12878 65.10 6904 34.90 19782

G.C.E Advance Level results and analysis of students

qualified for university Source: Department of Examinations 2007

Gender

University Qualified

TotalMale Female

Stream No. % No. %

Bio Science 5797 34.88 10824 65.12 16621

Physical Science 6969 69.47 3063 30.53 10032

Commerce 16054 42.95 21326 57.05 37380

Art 14571 25.84 41813 74.16 56384

All stream 43391 36.03 77026 63.97 120417

Expectations of children - Gender wise

Source: School as a prism

Students’ Expectations

Number Percentage

Girls Boys Total Girls Boys

To be a beneficial person to the country66 88 154 42.9 57.1

Look after the members of the family75 87 162 46.3 53.7

To be a doctor51 75 126 40.5 59.5

To be an engineer03 13 16 18.8 81.2

Media person03 06 09 33.3 66.7

To be a teacher /principal 31 05 36 86.1 13.9

Emigration05 14 19 26.3 73.7

Commissioner of girls guides/ artist/ Male nurse/ tour guide/

mathematician/A pharmacist /Archeologist 06 02 08 75.0 25.0

Sports person02 03 05 40.0 60.0

Accountant/ Banker05 05 10 50.0 50.0

Be a politician_ 02 02 `_ 100.

Be a pilot_ 04 04 _ 100.

A designer/ an inventor01 09 10 10.0 90.0

Percentage of teachers by gender

Source: School Census 2007

Male

30%

Female

70%

Workshop/ project Organizers YearParticipants/ invitees

Male Female

Best case study in 2006 - School for

the child: Child sensitive good

practices in Sri Lankan schools:

NIE

2006 10 19

Writing workshop on

comprehensive framework for

social cohesion and peace

education

MoE, NIE & GTZ

2007 11 13

Workshop on Preparing a

comprehensive framework on

social cohesion and

peace education

MoE, NIE and GTZ

2007 31 15

Learning to live together: Field

research on monitoring tools on

social cohesion and peace

education in selected ten schools

MoE, NIE and GTZ

2008 6 14

Situation analysis of stakeholders

related to social cohesion and

peace education

MoE, NIE and GTZ

2008 14 6

Education for social cohesion ,

disaster risk management and

psycho social care- Workshop on

action plan 2008

MoE, NIE and GTZ

2008 73 29

MoE – Ministry of Education

NIE – National Institute of Education

GTZ - German Technical Cooperation Sri Lanka

Participants at workshops related to social cohesion and peace education:

Equal participation of women

Foreign Employment 2002-2005Source: Central Bank Report 2005

Category 2002 2003 2004 Annual2005 First

half

2005 Second

half

No.

employed in

foreign

countries

203,773 208,808 213,453 230,963 111,481 119,482

Percentage

by gender

Male 35 36 37 41 41 41

Female 65 64 63 59 59 59

Percentage by labour category

House maids 53 49 52 54 54 54

Skilled

labourers 22 23 21 20 20 20

Unskilled

labourers 18 21 20 18 18 18

Other 7 7 7 8 8 8

Participation Rates of the Labour Force by GenderSource: Central Bank Report 2005

Category 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005

Male 66.1 64.8 67.7 67.5 66.7 66.0 68.5 68.0 67.0 67.1

Female 30.7 32.3 33.5 33.6 32.5 32.4 33.9 32.0 31.7 30.9

What the tables tells us

Will Discuss for 5 minutes

Now the third part

It is about a case study on Sri Lanka:

Conducted for

APCEIU, Seoul, South Korea

All about the case study are in the report on

School as a Prism:

A Case Study on Gender Equity

and

Democratic Participation

in Sri Lankan Schools

Democracy in Sri Lanka filter

different colours of both boys and

girls to mould their competencies to

suit the country and the world

I would like to summarize the

content in one sentence

AcknowledgementsAPCEIU, Seoul, South Korea

Mr. Kang Dai-Geun (Former Director)

Members of the Research and Development team

Ms. Eom Jeongmin, Ms. Hye-Won Jung and Ms. Ma. Johanna C. Encabo

And

SUNILA & RENUKA RATNAYAKE, Sri Lanka

for the research

And

UNESCO, Bangkok

Ms. Molly Lee, Ms. Charnviwatana Kraiwan, Sveva Pettorino

For the opportunity given to Sri Lanka to present its case at Bangkok