54% of public sector workers have arts degrees

Wednesday, 11 July 2018 00:00 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}

Latest Census Dept. survey finds 1.1 million public sector workers

The latest survey on the public sector in Sri Lanka conducted by the Census and Statistics Department showed that only one in four out of 1.1 million public employees have a degree with more than 50% of them in the Arts stream.

According to the current census, 1,109,475 people, excluding the uniformed staff of the Sri Lankan Army, Sri Lanka Navy and Sri Lanka Air Force, have been employed in the Public and Semi-Government Sectors as of 17 November 2016. Among these employees, 65.3% hold positions in the Central Government and 34.7% hold positions in Provincial Councils, the department said in a statement.

Of all employees enumerated above, 485,471 belong to the Public Sector of the Central Government, 380,198 to the Public Sector of the Provincial Councils and 243,806 to the Semi-Government Sector of both Central and Provincial Governments.

According to the information revealed from this census, 55.1% of the employees are male while 44.9% are female. When considering the Central Government and the Provincial Public Sector separately, there are clear differences in these percentages: in the Provincial Public Sector, 61.6% are female, whereas in the Central Government, the majority (64%) are male.

In this census, the information gathered on the educational qualifications of the Public and Semi-Government Sector employees shows that approximately 35% have passed the G.C.E. (Advanced Level) examination. Similarly, one in four (26.2%) of Public and Semi-Government Sector employees hold degrees. Of the roughly 290,000 degree-holders, more than half (approximately 54%) have obtained their basic degree in the Arts Stream. Likewise, roughly 14% have obtained degrees in Management/Commerce Stream while about 10% from the Science Stream.