Sri Lanka is a lower-middle income
country with a per capita income of approximately US$ 2,400,
and a population of around 20 million people. Sri
Lanka's high rate of literacy is due to its sustained
growth through the twentieth century. Primary education
spans the first five grades of schooling, grades 1-5.
Student's progress automatically to lower secondary
education for four years of education in grades 6-9 and then
on to upper secondary education in grades 10-11 for a two
year course that culminates in the General Certificate of
Education Ordinary level examination (GCE O-L). The
curriculum for primary education is designed separately from
those for subsequent stages of education. The primary
education curriculum stage is encapsulated in a primary
curriculum framework that derives from extensive debate
during the 1990s in connection with the recommendations in
1997 of the national education commission, the work of the
technical committee on primary education appointed by the
presidential task force and detailed implementation work by
the primary education unit of the national institute of
education. Since 2003 the National Educational Research
Centre (NEREC) based at the University of Colombo has
administered tests in first Language, Mathematics and
English to grade 4 children in a sample of schools
country-wide. In the 2009 assessments a cut-off percentage
of 80 percent rather than 50 percent were 48 percent in
First Language, 53 percent in Mathematics and just 19
percent in English. The budget of the national Ministry of
education includes a separate budget line for primary
education but this money is allocated only to the primary
sections of national schools. Province, zone, division and
school budget do not separate allocations and expenditure
for primary and secondary. There is no reason in principle
why separate budget lines could not be created for most
types of expenditure.