Hopeless in Sri Lanka

I was reading an article about the overwhelming desire, if given half a chance, of youth in Sri Lanka to emigrate, preferably never to return! from the shores of this country. It is a damning indictment of the way the people in power over our history have managed expectations. Basically ZILCH!!(not managed but destroyed it!)

Is there any hope left? If everyone who wishes to leave is able to leave we will be a country of geriatrics, withering away with nothing to look forward to. We have not built a sense of patriotism and love for the country. All the talk in the media about patriotism therefore is just for personal glory and not based on any real feeling. In short baloney.

If predictions are true, and current population trends are followed it is likely that in about 50 years the population of this country will be about half of what it is today. If conditions overseas permit Sri Lankans to live overseas, then they will not return, that is those who currently only go for a few years to earn those extra bucks to buy life’s goodies which a local paycheck does not permit them.

It is said that many Sri Lankans who go overseas engage in jobs they would never be seen dead doing here. They go out of necessity and because those jobs still pay better than here. So the education they received to be a garbage cleaner in a foreign land is also wasted. What we need is a national debate first, where we are able to discuss the alternatives available both here and overseas and determine how we can fulfill the expectations of youth here in a practical sense. It is not that there are no opportunities, but we need to know what opportunities there are and try and direct youth to them, rather than them getting an education in areas there are just NO opportunities for them.

It is interesting to note that the opportunities that are absent here are present in other countries. So a young person goes and works as a cleaner, and then sees opportunities open to him, so he goes to night school and gets a diploma or degree, which he then leverages up to a better job, and so on goes up by his own effort, not subsidized by a family or government. His sense of achievement then is even greater and his sense of desire to achieve is also that much greater. If only we in Sri Lanka were able to show him that road ahead, however tough or hard, it is nevertheless achievable.

It is this latter challenge that must be started at an earlier age, before the young person suddenly finds himself unemployable. We see so many people who want a job, but have no clear concept of work. They do not know what it entails, or what they want. They require some early grasp of what it is to work, about discipline and what employers expect from their workforce. No wonder on the one hand employers are desperately searching for suitably qualified people, and on the other there are so many unemployable young intelligent people, if only they were able to fill those vacancies.

It is the duty of our society in Sri Lanka today to identify this issue, and find practical solutions to it as part of a revised Education Policy framework, that puts the welfare of the young person first, and provides him or her with tools to succeed