Sri Lankan “free” education & “free” health ; a boon or a curse?

Countries like Korea, Malaysia and Singapore are well above Sri Lanka in terms of economic prosperity. Sri Lanka had the same initial conditions belonged to those afore mentioned countries. But what hampered Sri Lanka’s economic growth? ; According to my economic sense, the culprits are the “free” education and the “free” health. The word “free” is within quotations for two reasons. First reason is a universal truth. There is nothing free in this world. Free welfare is distributed at the expense of taxpayer’s money. The second reason is that even though “free” (which is distributed as a benefit) it’s the perpetrator of Sri Lanka’s hindered economic growth.

Sri Lanka boasts a superior literacy rate. But unfortunately intellectuals and skilled labors have no business projects in Sri Lanka to efficiently utilize their skills and abilities. They go abroad in search of better employment opportunities. They should not be blamed. They bring money to Sri Lanka. But if their skills were employed within Sri Lanka, the benefit will be multiplied.

Even though it should have happened long time ago the present government seems to have realized the private sector’s role in education. A lesson learned from the history and from other developing countries. The strong influence of economists played a vital role in influencing the current economic policies as well. Government is now letting foreign universities and other educational institutes to establish in the domestic environment. Not only will it save the millions of costs undertaken by many students who go abroad either because they couldn’t get-through in to a local university or because their career goals are not catered by the local universities.

Privatization of education cannot be achieved overnight. Money should be gradually taken from education expenditure and they should be focused   towards industrial development projects. The developing industrial sector will generate profits while creating job opportunities. The expatriates will return to Sri Lanka since they can employ their skills and knowledge within the limits. It will be a solution for youth unemployment in Sri Lanka as well. Industry sector will economically empower the citizens and that there will be no need of free education or free health.

A particular political ideology and some with cliché nationalist romanticism seems to be against the privatization of education in Sri Lanka. Outwardly, the “free” education and “free” may seem like a boon. That’s why “free” education and “free” health is exploited by a particular political party to win political advantages.
The government medical organization and some university students backed by a particular political party are against the establishment of private medical college at Malabe. Private medical university will clearly diminish the hegemony created by local MBBS doctors. GMO with their terrorist like mafia behaviour is against these medical universities not because they are worried about the innocent patients, but because doctors who come out of private universities will be a threat to their business or in other words their “private practice”. Medical practitioners who come out of foreign universities pay major attention to prevention of diseases. But local doctors do not do so because they can earn money by curing those diseases. Their hypocrisy is evident when they, like a very obedient servant take care of their patients but treat the patients who come to public hospitals like dogs. The local doctor hegemony will lose their power over the government where they demanded very unfair requirements. They would often go on strike for the silliest reasons. Local doctors were reported to even sexually exploit patients. They seems to have forgotten the fact that they are indirectly but clearly paid by those patients. Instead they behave like Sultans. There is a clear attitudinal difference between locally educated doctors and foreign educated doctors. These are just a few examples of the corruption and mismanagement inside the health business in Sri Lanka.

The world index recognizes medical and other graduate programs from countries like Ethiopia and Uganda which are economically less powerful than Sri Lanka. Besides the lecturers within the university system have gained their higher qualifications from foreign nations. The private universities will attract student from other countries as well. There are tuition classes available for students from grade 1 to grade 12 and even for university programs. And management programs are not on par with programs like CIMA and CIM, so students are compelled to follow such programs to get employed. That sums up the effectiveness of “free” education. Moreover when education is given “free” students are extrinsically demotivated. They take “free” education for granted. They are not in need of maximizing the opportunity of education when it is given free. This is in accordance to basic economic principles and commonsense.

One might argue that the war hampered Sri Lanka’s growth. Sure the terrorism affected the economy. The point is that poor economic condition itself might have contributed to the ethnic unrest. Besides country’s expenditure on “free” facilities were not reduced during the war or even after the war.

IT would be unfair if I don’t mention that there are very humane, kind hearted doctors who came out of local medical faculties. Unfortunately there is less of the better kind. There will be a minority who can’t pay for education for various reasons. There should be free education for such people. Scholarships should be given to recognized students. 

As a country Sri Lanka should achieve a substantial higher economic growth before delivering its benefit to the citizens. Above mentioned policy reforms cannot be implemented overnight or on the short run. But its long run benefits are evident, if we look at the speedily growing high performing Asian economies. Sri Lanka seems to be on the right track now but selfish, commonplace objections should be well fought and government should do something to create a consensus among the citizens, regarding its altruistic policy reforms which are for the benefit of the nation, without letting political propagandists, moneymakers and nincompoops to hinder the nation’s economic development.

Comments

Anonymous said…
Dear Friend,

I am not a doctor. I am an Accountant. Your words in the report is very attractive. But not practical. Reasons:

Who is getting poor gov. salary? Only Government doctors?

How many foreign/private doctors participate free medical camp in remote areas? Nothing. only Gov. Doctors.

Who prevent the disease in this country? Private Doctors/ Foreign Doctors? No. gov. Doctors

Who serve the 20 million people in this country? Private Doctors / foreign Doctors? No. Gov. Doctors

Who serve our war heroes during war time? Private doctors/Forign Doctors? No. Gov Doctors

Who is conducting free medical camp in rural areas in our country? Private doctors?/ Foreign doctors? No. Gov. Doctors.

What is the percentage people getting Gov. hospital services? 1%? 99%? Answer is more than 99% Why people are not getting 99% hospital service from private sector?

Any rejected patient sent by private hospital, who serve? Private doctor/Foring Doctors?. Only Gov. Doctors.

Don't blame our Gov. Doctors. they are doing good service. Prior to write report read our economic data. Our country health sector is very good due to this government hospitals and doctors.

Get Central Bank report and read, what is the service percentage of government hospital and private hospitals?

Most of our people are Jealous with our GOV. doctors. Because others missed the chance become doctors. There is a chance. Study private. Pass Act 16 and come. No problem. But pass rate is 30% and all other fail due to poor knowledge. This is the reason to blame Gov. Doctros.
Anonymous said…
Yes, I agree with 100%. Only Government doctors are doing good service on poor salary.

Private sector is exploitation people. Like Malambe PMC. Cost is 6.5 million. But, India, Nepal, Bangladesh are very cheap.This private Medical College fees need to reduce up to 3.0 million, because BOI and SL government provide more benefits. Entrance must be based on Z Score.
Blog Author said…
No Its not just the salary. They get Vehicle permits. And various other facilities that other gov employees are not getting. The GMOA(Government Medical Officers Association) has the monopoly of medical practising in Sri Lanka. They terrorise the governments by threatening to go on strike and win their unjust demands. If there are more private educated doctors there will be no chance for GMOA to do their shenanigans. No the doctors are not poor. They are probably the richest group of gov employees due to their monopoly and the fact that there is a negatively large amount of patients for a single doctor in SL. How do they do it? By private practice. Some doctors ask patients to come for their private clinics for better treatment. They are afraid of PMC coz it will reduce their number of patients. If they really care about the patients,they shoulnt go on strike for the silliest reasons.
It is a must for a doctor to work in a rural area.Doctors are assigned all over the island based on their performance at the medical faculty. Im not sure whether they go there for the benefit of the rural people. But they don't like the poor patient-hood there. They want to flock to Colombo and other developed centers. I agree with most of the things you say. The reason is the government monopoly over facilitation medical services. Thats why the importance of opening private medical schools in Sri Lanka. This is what I call the island mentality. Look at the situation in other countries and decide. Dont assume that only Gov educated docs work at government hospitals. Most of the specialists doctors and Medical faculty lecturers are products of the private medical schools as well.
Anonymous said…
These GMOA Doctors together with the fooled medical undergrats should be asked the question whether private hospitals should also be closed with the private medical institutes?? Such a bunch of money-minded hypocrites.

Popular posts from this blog

File "stdin", line 1 — invalid syntax error in Visual Studio Code

ChatGPT wrote a poem about Ajahn Brahm

A Perspective of Sri Lankan Bus Conductors