IMPACT OF WOMEN’S ENROLLMENT IN EDUCATION ON SOCIO-ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT OF SRI LANKA

Abstract

In today’s context, it is apparent that the demographic changes have made an impact on almost all the nations of the world. In Sri Lanka too the age pyramid has changed dramatically and the women’s participation in socio economic activities has increased over the years. The concept of a knowledge society is a vital factor in today’s globalized world. The objective of this paper is to find key indicators related to women’s education enrollment. To assess this, secondary data of the last 5 years were collected regarding women’s enrollment in education and various health & socio economic indicators. Correlation analysis was used as the methodology. Now most Sri Lankan women enroll for higher education and as a result this impacts some major socio economic indicators such as infant mortality, life expectancy at birth, GNP growth rate, literacy rate, imprisonment & labor force. From the data analysis, a negative relationship was revealed between the education enrollment and infant mortality, literacy rate (since Sri Lanka’s general literacy has decreased in the last 5 years), female labor force participation and female imprisonment. A positive correlation existed in life expectancy at birth. It is recommended that business and social policy makers of Sri Lanka should jointly focus their attention on the value of women’s education enrollment and its role in current changes in Sri Lankan society.

Keywords: Age Pyramid, Economic Development, Key Socio Economic Indicators, Women’s General and Tertiary Education Enrollment

For full Paper: fmscresearch@sjp.ac.lk