If the current education and health conditions persist, a child born in Sri Lanka today will be a little more than half as productive as she or he could have been if they had the benefit of a complete education and enjoyed full health, World Bank Country Director for Nepal, Sri Lanka and the Maldives Dr. Idah Pswarayi-Riddihough said on Friday (27).
Speaking about the recently released World Bank report on Human Capital Index, which measures and forecast a country’s capital by studying the life-cycle of a child, Dr. Pswarayi-Riddihough said children born in Singapore today can expect to achieve 88 per cent of their full potential when older, while in Sri Lanka it is only 58 per cent.
“Sri Lanka performs only moderately well globally, with an overall score of 58 percent, and a ranking of 74 out of the 157 countries included in the Index,” she said adding that even though Sri Lanka is performing better than other South Asian countries it lags behind East Asian nations such as Vietnam, China and Mongolia.