1.1 Introduction

• Site Map

Ceylon was under foreign occupation from the 16th century under Portuguese and Dutch rule until ceded to the British in 1796. The Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka became an independent country in 1948 and changed its name From Ceylon to Sri Lanka in 1972.

1.2 Geography

Sri Lanka has an area encompassing 65,610 square kilometers and is an island state. Its land mass is 64,740 square kilometers with a 1,340 kilometer coast line

Source: Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Kingdom of Thailand

1.3 Socio-economic Profile

Demographics

Sri Lanka is society dominated by the Sinhalese 74% and Tamil 18% groups. Sinhala is the official and national language with Tamil being designated as a national language. English is commonly used in governmental business and is spoken competently by an estimated 10% of the population. Buddhism accounts for approximately 70% of religious beliefs while Hindu comprises 15%, Christian 8% and Muslim 7%.

Population

According to the Department of Census and Statistics through the Census of Population and Housing of 2001, the total population in the 18 Districts of Sri Lanka, including Ampara District, which were covered completely was 16.86 Million. The total population enumerated throughout the country, including Northern and Eastern Provinces was 17.56 Million, which accounted for 94% of the total population of Sri Lanka . The total population of Sri Lanka as on 17th July 2001 was estimated to be 18.73 Million. This compares to 14.8 million recorded in the 1981 Census indicating an average estimated annual growth rate during 1981-2001 of 1.14%. For purposes of consistency, the population figure of 17.56 million is being used in this report.

As indicated in Table 2, approximately 16% of the total population lives in urban areas while the remaining 84.1% live in rural and estate areas. Table 3 highlights that females comprised over 50% of the population as compared to 49.5% being male.

Labor Force

According to the Department of Census and Statistics, the total labor force during 2003 as 7.65 million of which males comprised 67.2% (5.14 million) and 32.8% (2.51 million) comprised females. The total number of the employed population was 7,012,634 during 2003 of which 68.9% (4.83 million) were males and 31.1% (2.18 million) were female.

Over 38% of the employed population in 2003 was in fields of skilled agricultural and fishery and craft related fields.

Percentage Distribution of Employed Population By Occupation 2003

According to the Department of Census and Statistics, the total number of unemployed during 2003 was 640,961 of which 48.5% (310,723) were males while 51.5% (330,238) were female.

Poverty Levels

The official poverty line according to the Department of Census and Statistics for the year 2002 was calculated to be Rs.1,423 based on the real total food and non-food consumption expenditure per person per month. Based on this measurement, the poverty headcount ratio, defined as the percentage of the population whose monthly per capita total consumption expenditure falls below the poverty line, was 22.7% on a national level in 2002. As shown in Table 6, the national poverty level decreased dropped 6.1% from 28.8% in 1995-1996.

1.4 Government

Sri Lanka is a republic with a President acting as Chief of State. President Chandrika Bandaranaike has acted as President since 1994 and Mahinda Rajapakse as Prime Minister since April 2004. A cabinet is appointed by the President in consultation with the Prime Minister. Elections are held for a popular vote for president for a six year term. A unicameral Parliament is elected by popular vote on the basis of a modified proportional representation system by district. There are 225 seats in Parliament and each member is elected to serve a six year term.

1.5 National Social Welfare System

The Government established the Samurdhi Authority in 1995 to implement projects to uplift the quality of life of the underprivileged. The project has spent over Rs. 8 billion a year to empower the poor whose monthly income is less than Rs1,000. Approximately 4% of the beneficiaries have ceased receiving assistance under the Samurdhi Authority due to their improved income levels resulting from the program.

The main thrust of Samurdhi is to ensure the participation of the poor in the production process by increasing access to resources for self-employment, enhancing their health and nutritional status as well as improving rural infrastructure. The program attempts to enhance the capacity of the poor to take initiatives to improve the quality of life of the family through sustained provision of technical, managerial and financial support based on a consultative process. The main objectives of the Programme are as follows:

• Broadening opportunities for income enhancement and employment;
• Organizing youth, women, and other disadvantaged segments into small groups and encouraging them to participate in decision-making activities and developmental processes at the grassroots level;
• Assisting persons to develop their talents and strengthening their asset bases through productive employment;
• Establishing and maintaining productive assets to create additional wage employment opportunities at the rural level.

1.6 Education Profile

Education System:

The Compulsory Education Ordinance of 1997 stipulates that all children between the ages of 5 to 14 years old must receive an education. The education system consists of 4 levels of education including a primary level for grades 1-5; a junior secondary level for 4 years covering grades 6-9; a senior secondary level lasting for 2 years covering grades 10-11 and a collegiate level lasting 2 years for grades 12 to 13. The Sri Lanka education system is characterized by 3 National Examinations conducted by the Department of Examinations including a Grade 5 Scholarship Examination, a General Certificate of Education (Ordinary Level) examination, and a General Certificate of Education (Advanced Level) examination.

According to the Ministry of Education (MOE), in 2002 there were 9,829 government schools, 561 Pirivenas and 66 Private schools (Registered before 1960) in Sri Lanka. The government schools consist of 320 National schools managed by the MOE and 9,509 Provincial schools, managed by the Provincial Councils.

In addition to Government Schools there are 33 non-fee-levying Assisted Private Schools and 33 fee levying autonomous Private Schools. There is another category of English Medium International Schools approved and registered by the Board of Investments Sri Lanka. The number of international schools which are not controlled by the MOE has increased recently in urban areas.

According to the MOE there were 4,027,075 students and 186,999 teachers in 9,829 government schools in 2002. The following table highlights the number of schools, students and teachers as of the 2002 school year as provided by the Ministry of Education:

National Education Commission (NEC)

The National Education Commission (NEC) was appointed in 1991, after studying a memoranda received from professional associations, trade unions, university community, teachers, political parties and the general public submitted their recommendations in 1997. A program for the implementation of the reforms began in 1999. The primary goals of the proposals were:

• 1. To provide a system of education that would equip students with the necessary knowledge, skills and attitudes, to empower them and make them employable and productive citizens of Sri Lanka.
• 2. Create a generation of young people with correct values compassion and care towards fellow citizens and who will be able to live with tolerance towards one another.

The reform proposals were based on two main policy initiatives:

Improvement in the quality of education
Providing education for all

A variety of education programs have been funded by various international and NGO organizations in Sri Lanka and include the following:

• General Education Project - 2 (funded by IDA / World Bank)
• Teacher Education and Teacher Deployment Project (funded by IDA / World Bank)
• Secondary Education Modernization Project (funded by Asian Development Bank)
• Primary Mathematics Project (funded by DFID - UK)
• Primary English Language Project (funded by DFID - UK)
• Basic Education Sector Programme (funded by GTZ)
• Junior School Improvement Project (funded by JICA - JAPAN)
• Development of Science and Mathematics in the primary and secondary schools in Sri Lanka (funded by JICA-Japan)

Enrolment Ratios:

Public Expenditure on Education

According to the Ministry of Finance, the total budget appropriations for 2005 totaled Rs439 billion (US$4.4 billion) of which the Ministry of Education received a 5.9% allocation amounting to Rs26 billion (US$262 million).

Literacy Rates

According to the Department of Census and Statistics, the Census conducted in 2001 indicted that the average literacy rate in Sri Lank increased from an average of 86.6% in 1990/91 to 90.7% in 2001.

1.7 Health Profile

According to the Department of Health Services, Ministry of Health Annual Health Bulletin in 2000, life expectancy at birth for the total population was 73 years and 70.7 for males and 75.4 for females. There were 57,027 hospital beds in 2000 allowing for 2.9 beds per 1,000 of the population. Central dispensaries totaled 404. There were 7.963 registered physicians and 14,716 nurses. Public health nursing sisters and midwives totaled 5,068 in 2000.

HIV/AIDS has not been a significant threat to Sri Lanka. According to the United Nations, World Population Policies, 2003, Sri Lanka had a prevalence rate of HIV/AIDS less than 0.1%. It was estimated that the number of infected adults was approximately 5,000 people.

1.8 Information Communication Technology

According to the APT Yearbook, as of 2001, Sri Lanka had 625,000 fixed telephone lines, 90,000 wireless lines and 300,000 cellular lines. Email and internet subscribers totaled 26,000 during the same period. The internet code for Sri Lanka is .lk