ACHIEVEMENTS IN HUMAN CAPITAL FORMATION IN SRI LANKA

Abstract

Education, being one main way of human capital formation, plays a crucial role in socio-economic development. For a balanced regional development, similar to other resources, formation of human capital in all regions of a country is essential. The paper deals with how the human capital formation through formal education occurs at the regional level in Sri Lanka. The methodology, being quantitative, includes descriptive analysis and ranking of provinces through a composite index on human capital formation. The study completely depends on institutional and noninstitutional secondary data sources. The results suggest that, among the provinces, the disparity in human capital formation through education is significant. The Western Province is ranked at the first place while the Eastern Province gets the last. North-Western Province and the Southern Province are also outstanding while the position of Uva and Central Provinces are not satisfactory. In addition, the study finds that there are gender-related disparities also in the formation of human capital at the regional level.