Sri Lankan corporates brings down foreign CEO’s and Administrators to work in Sri Lanka and pay them around Rs. Six to 20 million monthly while sending Sri Lankan house wives and unskilled workers overseas for jobs for around Rs. 40,000.
This was said by youngest CEO of a multinational in Sri Lanka Kishu Gomes of Caltex Lubricants Lanka fame at the inauguration of the EDULINK ICON Business School’s ACCA course. He said that to bring back a salary of one foreign CEO Sri Lanka has to export 20 unskilled workers. “This huge imbalance can only be corrected by producing skilled education for Sri Lanka youth and then export them for higher salaries.”
Though Sri Lanka boasts of a 95.5% literacy rate the education is not focused towards fulfilling the requirements of the current demands of work. The education syllabuses are outdated.
“For this the politicians of successive governments are responsible as they have not fine-tuned the education sector to meet neither the present nor future employee demands.”
Gomes emotionally pointed out that about 25, 000 schoolchildren in Sri Lanka in rural areas have to travel round 10 kilo meters per day to school. “Out of this number 25% of children walk barefoot to school and don’t have a luxury to eat in the morning. They only have their first meal at 3 30 p.m.” He said that the country cannot expect politicians to create a better tomorrow for them as successive governments since independence have failed in this regard. “We along with institutions like EDULINK ICON Business School have to come with solutions.”
Commenting on the way forward for Sri Lanka he said that the best option for the nation is not agriculture, technology but people.
“While Sri Lanka spends Rs. 40 to produce a kilo of paddy, India, Thailand, Malaysia Vietnam and Indonesia does it for Rs. 20. It’s the same scenario with technology as we still try to build a coconut plucking machine while the world is far ahead. Hence this is not the way forward.”
“India has successfully invested in focused education for children and today it’s one of the biggest countries that exporter professionals and Sri Lanka too should take a leaf from that.”
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