SL facing massive brain drain in university system

There is a critical shortage of lecturers in the university system and the shortage of teachers in universities is close to 50 percent, an expert said.

“There should be 11,900 teachers in the universities in Sri Lanka, but there are currently less than 6,000. Due to this, in order to maintain the smooth functioning of university education, the lecturers have to carry an enormous workload,” President of the Federation of University Teachers Association (FUTA) Prof. Barana Jayawardana said.

He said that the number of lecturers working in the university system had decreased to 6,300 by January 2023 and in the past seven months another 500 to 600 academics have left the country.

He also said that the popular thinking that only State universities are affected by university teachers leaving the country has no truth as private universities are equally affected, for it is the lecturers from state universities who teach in the country’s top private universities as well.

The professor said that against this backdrop, the impact of brain drain cannot be separated into Government or private sector and if the government does not take some action to prevent brain drain, the country will have to face some serious issues in the future.

Prof. Jayawardana also said that although the brain drain cannot be completely controlled, the Government should make a formal intervention at this time and implement a programme to reduce the brain drain. He went on to say that lecturers and professors are a group of people who can easily get jobs abroad and if they do not have the opportunity to lead a life of quality in this country, they will opt to leave.

Similar to the impact on the medical field in the country due to the departure of doctors, qualified lecturers leaving the country will have a massive negative impact on the education sector.

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