Standardization and ethnocracy in Sri Lanka

Arbeitspapier

Standardization was the scheme that replaced meritocracy in Sri Lanka education, with positive discrimination to increase the majority Sinhalese community's university enrolment. It did so by minimizing better-qualified minority Tamils' university entry, even as the quest for Tamil separatism was gaining ground. The government claimed the scheme was justified to create a more balanced representation in science-based university fields, but it was among the policies that contributed to the island becoming an ethnocracy. While standardization was later discarded, its legacy continues thanks to the district quota system it fostered and the inequalities it helped to cement between ethnic groups. Ultimately, standardization did not merely complicate existing inequalities; it also contributed to anomie and substandard professionalism within the educational and governmental sectors. A path dependence explanation helps us to better understand why the policy was instituted, and why district quotas continue to operate.

Angaben zum Objekt

• ISBN: 978-92-9267-217-1
• Sprache: Englisch

Verweise und Beziehungen

• Erschienen in: Series: WIDER Working Paper ; No. 2022/86

Klassifikation und Themen

• Klassifikation: Wirtschaft ; Education: Government Policy ; Education and Inequality
• Thema: district quotas ; ethnocracy ; path dependence ; positive discrimination ; Sri Lanka education ; standardization ; Tamil separatism

Beteiligte, Orts- und Zeitangaben

• Ereignis: Geistige Schöpfung
• (wer): DeVotta, Neil
• Ereignis: Veröffentlichung
• (wer): The United Nations University World Institute for Development Economics Research (UNU-WIDER)
• (wo): Helsinki
• (wann): 2022

Weitere Informationen

• DOI: doi:10.35188/UNU-WIDER/2022/217-1
• Handle: http://hdl.handle.net/10419/267833
• Letzte Aktualisierung: 10.03.2025, 11:44 MEZ