Introduction
In my essay, I will compare the education process in the USA with the one in Sri Lanka. My aim is to expose the things that are the same and the things that are different about the education system and education process in both countries. It is my hope that they may learn from each other.
Education system in Sri Lanka vs. USA education system
In Sri Lanka, the government provides education as a fundamental right of being born in Sri Lanka. That is why the literacy rate is at 98.1%, which is very good. That is good for a developed country, and yet Sri Lanka is only a third-world country with far fewer resources than more developed countries. Sri Lanka has the highest literacy rate of all third world countries. The rate of illiteracy in the USA is around 1%, which mostly includes people that are unwilling to learn or unable to learn. Most people in the USA get a formal education as their right and as a rule–since parents may be prosecuted for knowingly denying their child an education. In this way, the USA and Sri Lanka are similar with a slight difference.
The adult literacy rate in both Sri Lanka and the USA are pretty good, with the literacy rate in Sri Lanka being far higher than any other third-world country. The Sri Lanka government does not need to force children and adults to go to school or college because people seem to want to go anyway.
They both have something in common in that it was the British that set up their education system. The modern schooling system started in Sri Lanka in the 1800s by the British. This is true also in the USA, as most of it was colonized and ruled by the British for a long time, and the British were the ones that set up formal education and nationwide education in the USA all those years ago.
The education system is free in Sri Lanka thanks to a bill in 1931. The USA also has free education to a point. Both Sri Lanka and the USA are going to charge you as a student if you want to study into higher education, but both countries offer free education to younger people.
Conclusion
It is clear that the USA can learn from the people in Sri Lanka. The adult literacy rate in the USA is 99% and they are the richest country in the world, and yet Sri Lanka has a tiny budget by comparison and they can still achieve a 98.1% literacy rate. There appears to be more commonalities within the USA and Sri Lanka education process than it would first appear, even down to the fact that it was the British that set up their formal education systems in both cases. Both offer free schooling for younger, both have high literacy rates, and both have a high attendance rate–even if the US attendance rates are forced whereas the Sri Lanka attendance rates are through people wanting an education.
