Assimilating half a century of research on Sri Lanka conducted by the author, this book offers a comprehensive examination of Sri Lanka’s education journey over the years.

Sri Lanka’s early achievements in education and literacy became well-known among the international development community in the middle of the last century and were often used to benchmark progress elsewhere. Development, Education and Learning in Sri Lanka presents an illuminating narrative of changing education fortunes and inequalities, based on half a century of research conducted by Angela W. Little. This journey was undertaken in collaboration with Sri Lankan researchers island-wide in myriad communities, schools, classrooms, and education offices, through conversations with countless parents, teachers, students, community members, trade union officers, politicians, and members of local, national, and international development agencies, as well as through extensive documentary analysis.

The book delineates the distinctive and changing features of the Sri Lankan education system and compares it with systems elsewhere, to offer in-depth analyses of myriad issues and challenges in a single country over an extended period, framed by shifting international discourses and comparisons with education systems elsewhere. These analyses are framed by themes in the international development discourse on education and development–some of which have been influenced by the Sri Lankan story–ranging from modernization to basic needs to sustainable development. The book promotes a message about the need to understand education and development on a country’s own terms and to place learning at the heart of education policy, situating it within broader conceptions of the purpose, values, and means of development.