Economists have theoretically shown that decentralization of governance promotes growth and development. However, this is not so according to the empirical evi-dence which sometimes shows divergent results. In the meantime, more and more countries decentralize their governance. This article reviews Sri Lanka's experience of decentralization during the past 15 years. The article compares the pre- and post- decentralized economic status under Provincial Councils and examines the relationship of the degree of decentralization with poverty and the per capita income of the country. Findings show that the actual degree of decentralization is very low and it is not significantly conducive to increase per capita income, there is a huge imbalance in development among regions, and public officials at lower layers of government are not competent to reap the benefits of decentralization. For the effective functioning of decentralized governance in developing countries, the article recommends, first, to empower lower layers of government with more clearly defined functions that do not overlap with the central government; second, to develop a proper mechanism enabling lower tiers of government to reap the benefits of decentralization; third, to take prompt action to enable public officials to be familiar with the decentralized role of the state and principles of public expenditure.
This study individually estimates and analyzes the contribution of public schools and fee-paid private tutoring classes to academic performance of students in Sri Lanka. Econometric models and measures of descriptive statistics were estimated and instructional time was graphically compared to test whether the private tutoring classes significantly contribute to students’ academic performance. Econometric results with descriptive statistics strongly confirm the contribution of private tutoring education in the academic performance of the students in public schools. The study concludes that in Sri Lanka, private tuition classes have a significant positive contribution to the academic performance of students in public schools.
It is difficult to imagine a situation where there is no government. As the leader in an economy as well as the authority in charge of the State, government can contribute much towards economic development. If the government is not moving along a proper path of development, the results may be different. The gradually expanding public sector is an example of such an occasion. Derailed government can sometimes be corrected if citizens are familiar with the critical limit of the government in economic activity. The size of the government is increasing in some developed and developing countries. This undermines the role of the State in economic development. In the late 1970s Sri Lanka opened its economy and privatised many public ventures. This paper reviews the trends of the financial aspect and the size of the public sector in Sri Lanka. The paper compares government related variables such as expenditure, tax revenue, public debt and the number of public sector employees in Sri Lanka over time and with that of other countries in a given period of time. The paper concludes that in Sri Lanka, in spite of massive privatisation, the public sector is expanding. The critical variables, budget deficit and foreign debt are also increasing. However, the downward turning point has just originated. The citizens in a country ought to be made familiar with the fact that government is to provide goods with indivisible benefits and that government and the market are complementary and not substitutes. They should not always ask the government for more jobs. By introducing new taxes the government may increase income to narrow down the budget deficit.
specialists to medical students. Since the expected number of calls was high, the service decided to recruit and train medical students as first contact responders. At the time of initiation, medical education of students in Sri Lanka was limited to online lectures and clinical training was on halt for most academic batches. Thus, recruiting medical students to the system created the opportunity to train them in healthcare provision without actually exposing them to the ongoing pandemic.Volunteers were invited through social media groups. The volunteers, including doctors and medical students, were trained separately via initial online training programmes. Training needs were identified according to the diverse levels of knowledge and experience of volunteers. A range of competencies, including clinical reasoning, patient management, communication skills, teamwork, health education and handling difficult situations had to be inculcated. This included training on how to assess a patient and get all essential information within the system allocated time limit of 10 minutes.
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