スリランカにおける貧困問題,若者の失業と教育の関わりに関する考察 : 真の解決を求めで

Poverty has been a main developing issue in Sri Lanka for decades, and the government had been introducing various programs to respond to this issue. However, the poverty remains as a significant social problem in many parts of the country. Poverty is also related to the high unemployment rate of the youth. This paper has identified education as one of the main reasons for the poverty in this country. The unemployment rate of the youth who have completed the higher secondary level has been on increase in the recent years. The general education up to the secondary level in Sri Lanka has shown a satisfactory situation within the country and, this situation is superior to many other developing countries in Asia. However, the situation of tertiary level of education has been extremely weak. In addition, vocational education also has been poor, both in terms of "quantity" and "quality". The higher level of achievement in the secondary education has not geared to the development of the country as the number of jobs available for the educated youth is insufficient. Likewise, the youth are unable to start their-own business enterprises due to the lack of "applied knowledge" required to manage a business. In addition, it seems that the issue of poverty has been misused by the politicians to gain and maintain the power, without showing a keen interest to resolve this problem of the country. The author conducted an empirical survey in several "least developed villages" in the North Western Province, which represents the 3rd largest provincial poverty population, for searching an effective mean for addressing the poverty problem. Vocational training programs conducted by a Japanese NGO were focused for this survey. It was found that those training programs organized according to the real requirements and the demands of the rural youth had been successfully contributed to the empowerment of the youth in the both economical and social aspects. The author suggests that the empowerment of the youth can be more effective for solving the poverty problem than introducing income- or food-supplementary assistance programs linked with the short-sighted political objectives and, more attention is needed to introduce suitable vocational and higher learning programs for the youth who have completed the secondary education. International cooperation activities, both by foreign governments and NGOs, can be considered very significant in the solving of poverty problem in this country