A peculiar paper problem

Sri Lanka continues to be recognized abroad for all the wrong reasons. In the midst of the worst economic crisis post-independence, many foreign news outlets seem to have caught wind of another paper trail of issues.

The Education Ministry announced last Monday that examinations would continue as planned, reversing the previous statement to indefinitely postpone exams. From 29 March onwards, Western Province term exams for Grades 9, 10 and 11 are scheduled to be held despite the local market shortage of printing equipment and papers. While this story received much international coverage, this debacle did not come without warning. Only last month, The Book Publishers’ Association had pointed out that the world price of pulp and paper scraps used in the production of paper, has risen about 150%. As the Russia Ukraine crisis unfolded and dealt blows to the global supply chain of paper, Forex unavailability is Sri Lanka’s main culprit. According to the National Paper Company, this has caused average imports of paper which stood at around 120,000 tons per month to slump, printer ink and toner following closely.

Sri Lankan Book Publishers also pointed out that school exercise book production has fallen by around 70%. While this issue needs to be resolved before schools commence the second term, certain leeway may be granted for publishers to now open Letters of Credit to borrow foreign currency and import the necessary raw materials. The prevailing situation led the 7-day process to be whittled down to two or three days a week. Moreover, this supply shock comes during a time of revival in the local paper scene with a public private partnership involving the state-run National Paper Company and Korean Spa Packaging Ltd materialising last month.

This is one of the newer shortages of imports stemming from a foreign exchange crisis that has more notably led to disruptions in fuel, electricity and the milk powder industry. Certainly, the ban on some imported goods to retain foreign currency for more ‘essential’ imports was to no avail. With the decision to float the exchange rate, the rupee value of products with imported raw materials will continue to edge upwards as new stocks are desperately sourced. The return to normalcy would of course experience pain in the short term. However, things in the longer term seem less bleak with work-arounds and meaningful process changes afoot.

Just last week The Ceylon Electricity Board announced that due to paper shortages the printing of regular electricity bills has been obstructed and allowed electricity bills to be on hand written paper notes. While this is not desirable, it is a short-term fix with longer term implications. Additional issues can allegedly be directed to the Ceylon Electricity Board website, leading to the idea of electronic billing being flirted with.

A similar story can be found with The Ministry of Transportation website and mobile application for online train seat reservations. This first step to bring Sri Lankan transport bookings out of the dark ages and in line with lesser developed countries was announced on 22 March 2022. This was on the drawing board and released now in an auspicious time. Developed to digitize the issuance of train licenses, permits and the issuance of train tickets - soon to be e-train tickets - this system allows for several online payment methods as well.

It is naïve to simply and optimistically note that “necessity is the mother of invention”. Continued paper shortages would likely point in the direction of going paperless and minimizing environmental destruction all while gaining the benefits of digitization. Coming off from digitized systems, fully online exams are not unthinkable and would hopefully be implemented sooner rather than later. However, as industries and individuals adapt to short lived disruptions, future generations in foreign news cycles will have to pick up the pieces.