Determining what students need to learn for the workplace of the future is the key challenge in education today.
Campaign promises of our President, promises by his opponent, and the promises and practices of politicians all over the world reflect the political imperative to provide more and more of the same when what we need is change. Civil society now needs to play a role in bringing their attention to the fundamentals of education; how do we learn to learn?
The talk examined the institutional and cultural context of Sri Lanka’s education system, in the light of global precedents, and outlined some of the lessons we must learn.
About the Speaker
Dr. Gamage is a policy analyst focusing on education. As a former Director-General of Tertiary and Vocational Education Commission, she was instrumental in introducing the National Vocational Qualification system in Sri Lanka. Other interventions include a team effort to introduce a set of strategic indicators for the Ohio State University, a faculty quality indicator to the public university system in Sri Lanka, and a recent strategic plan for the Department of Examination of Sri Lanka. Her latest publication looks at teacher factors in integrating ICT in education. Dr. Gamage holds a Ph.D. in Chemistry from the University of British Columbia in Canada and a Master’s in Public Administration from the Ohio State University of USA in 1996. She is currently a senior research fellow at LIRNEasia and a co-founder of Education Forum Sri Lanka.
