Human Capital Report 2017 states “Sri Lanka bright spot in South Asia”
The World Economic Forum (WEF) based in Geneva recently released its Human Capital Report 2017, andSri Lanka was listed 70th in its global ranking after receiving a total score of 61.19 on the Human Capital Index, which evaluates the progress of 130 countries around the world and assess how they are improving and employing their human capital.
The Human Capital Index scale sores from 0 which means “worst” and 100 which is regarded as “best”. To better understand the complete human capital potential profile of a country the index utilises 4 sub categories namely, capacity, deployment, development and know-how across 5 diverse age groups
The report also enables cross-country learning and exchange allowing countries a chance to learn, absorb and rectify from results of other nations.
According to the report, “Sri Lanka is the bright spot for the South Asian region, benefiting from “strong educational enrolment rates as well as comparatively positive perceptions of the quality of its primary schools and education system overall, essential elements for building the nation’s future human capital.”
But, Sri Lanka falls short in realising the contribution its younger generation can make to places of employment, “… with more than one in five 15-24-year-olds currently unemployed.”
On a capacity sub-index which includes literacy and primary, secondary and tertiary education attainment rates, Sri Lanka scored 73.8 and ranked 44th but on know-how which covers skilled employment ranked 84th with a score of 49.4. On the deployment sub-index which covers labour force participation and the gender gap, the country ranked 96th with a score of 60.¹
Sri Lanka has been evaluated as the best performing South Asian country, with other regional nations like Nepal (98), India (103), Bangladesh (111) and Pakistan (125) trailing after. Aside from Sri Lanka other South Asian countries have still not reached the 60% markwhen it comes to their human capital development.
The no. 1 spot on the report was secured by Norway, with Finland, Switzerland, the US and Denmark following behind.
OSL TAKE:
Sri Lanka’s rank as one of South Asia’s best human capital development ranks is a positive with a commendably high score in the literacy and primary, secondary and tertiary education attainment sub-index. This indicates that the country has a high level of educated citizens. However the low score in the know-how sub-index which covers skilled employment means that training organisations have the opportunity to enter the country and provide specialised skill training.
¹ http://www.ft.lk/news/Sri-Lanka-bright-spot-in-South-Asia-in-developing-future-human-capital/56-639677
| Article Code : | VBS/AT/20092917/Z_8 |