Humanising future:
As Sri Lanka debates sweeping reforms to its school education system, one question looms larger than any curriculum revision: what kind of future are we preparing our children for?
In an era increasingly dominated by artificial intelligence (AI) and robotics, we cannot answer this question simply by aligning education with today’s job market. We must instead anticipate a rapidly transforming economy, one in which many traditional jobs may disappear and where machines, not humans, become the main drivers of production and profit.
While Sri Lanka is rightly focusing on skills, employability, and STEM education, we risk training students for a world that may not exist unless we simultaneously confront a deeper economic truth: if machines do most of the work, who will earn, spend, and sustain the economy as consumers?
This is why we must talk seriously about humanisation policies: strategic interventions to ensure that human beings remain essential, valuable, and employed in the AI age. And we can draw inspiration from an unlikely source: workforce nationalisation policies in the Gulf region.
From Nationalisation to Humanisation: Strategic Lessons for an Automated Future
Several countries, especially in the Gulf region, have introduced workforce nationalisation policies to increase job opportunities for their citizens by setting minimum quotas in the private sector. Examples include Oman’s Omanization, Saudi Arabia’s Saudization, the UAE’s Emiratization, Bahrainisation in Bahrain, Kuwaitization in Kuwait, and Qatarisation in Qatar. These policies aim to reduce reliance on foreign labour and promote greater citizen participation in the economy.
Since the implementation of these policies, they have significantly increased national employment in various sectors. For instance, Omanisation has resulted in over 400,000 Omanis working in the private sector by 2025, while Saudisation and Emiratisation have also raised local employment rates.
However, these initiatives encounter common challenges across countries, such as slow progress in high-skill and technical roles, skill gaps among local workers, employer preferences for cheaper expatriate labour, and sometimes superficial compliance focused on meeting quotas rather than achieving genuine integration. These experiences reveal a crucial lesson: quotas alone are not enough. Meaningful and lasting outcomes require not only investment in education, vocational training, and industry-specific incentives, but also a deliberate effort to enhance the human dimension of the workforce. By “humanization,” I propose not merely reserving defined spaces or quotas for humans, but actively enriching their uniquely human capabilities, particularly soft skills that machines cannot/will not replicate. This approach ensures that workers are not just present, but are indispensable contributors in an increasingly automated world. Just as past nationalisation policies sought to shield citizens from foreign labour displacement, we must now protect them from being replaced by machines.
This humanisation approach offers Sri Lanka a unique strategic advantage regardless of global trends. Whether other nations adopt similar policies or pursue full automation, Sri Lanka benefits. If automation accelerates globally, our graduates will become premium exports, possessing the human skills, as discussed later in this article, that many other economies may lack. If humanization spreads internationally, we are positioned as early adopters with proven frameworks. Either way, we are not just protecting jobs, we are creating a competitive advantage.
Expanding the Role of Government
We face a paradox. Free markets are essential for fostering entrepreneurship, innovation, and economic growth. However, these same forces can accelerate automation, replacing human workers across industries. For instance, robots are already assembling cars, AI is scanning medical images faster than doctors, and algorithms are approving bank loans in seconds. While these advances boost productivity, they also risk leaving people behind.
To address this, the government’s role must evolve into that of a responsible steward. It should support vibrant, competitive markets while introducing innovative policies, such as automation taxes (as explored in countries like South Korea and Italy) to fund workforce retraining, means-tested programmes to support those most affected by job displacement, and “human-in-the-loop” regulations to ensure critical decisions still involve human oversight.
We already see this in action: in healthcare, AI helps detect diseases in X-rays or predict patient complications, but doctors still make the final call. In finance, AI can flag fraudulent transactions or assess creditworthiness, but human experts review the decisions before action is taken. These safeguards prevent errors, ensure accountability, and build public trust.
Challenges Ahead
These “humanization” policies, despite their potential relevance, will not be without many challenges:
* Knowledge, skills and attitude-related mismatches and training gaps can weaken employment quotas and mandates, as shown in Oman. Without thorough reskilling and cooperation between industries, people-focused policies may become inefficient.
* Businesses’ resistance: Regulations raising costs or reducing flexibility could drive investment away.
* Means-Tested programme concerns:
* Administrative complexity,
* Potential stigmatization of recipients,
* Risk of creating disincentives to work.
* Careful design is needed to ensure fairness, accessibility and long-term effectiveness in responding to a changing labour market.
* AI integration challenges: Bias, transparency and fairness issues demand ethical AI management and human oversight.
* Educational reform resistance: Teacher readiness and societal expectations may hinder the acceptance of new curricula and pedagogies.
By striking a balance between entrepreneurial freedom and careful government intervention, including targeted educational reforms, we can cultivate a future workforce with the right mindset. This workforce will be ready to become entrepreneurs and to support entrepreneurship in different institutions within the entrepreneurial ecosystem. By implementing suitable economic policies and adjusting education to value innovation and entrepreneurial contributions, the government can foster a culture that supports innovation and entrepreneurship. This approach strengthens support networks in government, private, and nonprofit sectors that empower innovators and ensure that the rewards of entrepreneurship promote widespread prosperity and social unity.
Reimagining Learning: From Individual Success to Collective Growth
Sri Lanka can turn its educational challenges into a global competitive advantage. While other nations may prioritize technical skills for automation, we can cultivate uniquely human capabilities: collaboration, creativity, and ethical reasoning that become more valuable as AI advances.
Currently, our students enter a system centred on grades, rankings, and exams that produces high achievers who might lack the relational and emotional skills needed to create a humane, cohesive society. Success is defined mainly by beating peers, creating a culture where learning becomes a race, and students are conditioned to value personal achievement over shared progress.
Collaborative learning, when built around cultural values and mutual growth, offers a strong alternative. It changes the focus from “How can I be the best?” to “How can we all grow together?”
Such an approach promotes:
* Peer-to-peer learning, where students teach and support one another, reinforcing both understanding and mutual respect.
* Internalisation of cultural values such as cooperation, humility, and collective responsibility.
* Psychological well-being, by reducing isolation and anxiety caused by constant competition.
* Inclusive and equitable classrooms, where diverse learners can contribute in ways beyond standard testing.
This is not a call to abandon assessment or excellence, but rather to redefine success. Education must evolve from being a sorting mechanism to a nurturing space that cultivates both cognitive skills and ethical character. By promoting collaborative learning infused with cultural values, Sri Lanka can build a generation that is not only competent but also compassionate, community-oriented, and resilient.
Beyond Rote Learning: Educating for the Future
To thrive in a world where humans increasingly collaborate with intelligent systems, education must move beyond rote memorization and shift towards cultivating deeper, more relevant capacities.
We must foster:
* Curiosity and research-mindedness, replacing passive learning with active inquiry
* Creativity and adaptability, enabling students to solve complex, evolving problems
* Collaboration skills, including the ability to work with both humans and machines
* Ethical sensitivity and civic responsibility, ensuring that learners value human dignity beyond economic utility
This shift requires:
* Moving away from rigid curricula that prioritize exam scores
* Encourage project-based, problem-based, and research-driven learning
* Training teachers to become facilitators of inquiry rather than transmitters of content
* Embedding ethical reflection and emotional development into everyday
Ultimately, this should not be just an educational reform; it is a cultural transformation. It reframes the purpose of education: not just to produce workers for the market, but to nurture thoughtful, humane, and socially responsible global citizens for the future.
Why History and Aesthetics Still Matter.
The Sri Lankan government has officially confirmed that History and Aesthetics will remain mandatory subjects under the new reforms, despite social media controversy suggesting the opposite. This is significant: History is foundational not merely for memorising dates or ancient events, but for cultivating ethical reasoning, critical awareness, and civic identity.
These reforms face challenges, including resistance from teachers and communities, but demonstrate the transformative potential of History teaching to foster civic engagement and ethical reasoning.
Currently, much of School History education in Sri Lanka seems to focus on the chronology of rulers and eras, preserving facts, but not always fostering curiosity. Yet, there is a great opportunity to teach History differently. Highlighting the ancient irrigation systems that sometimes rival modern irrigation engineering, or the architectural ingenuity of Sigiriya and Anuradhapura, will surely motivate our younger generation. Consequently, they will see themselves as heirs to a legacy of innovation and not just tradition, and also as a source of technological inspiration that empowers creativity and instils pride.
Rethinking Free Education and the Ethics of Migration
Sri Lanka’s free education system has empowered generations of students to reach their professional heights that they may otherwise never have achieved. However, a new challenge is emerging: many of our most talented, highly educated professionals, doctors, engineers, academics, scientists, and IT experts are migrating in increasing numbers, often within just a few years of graduation.
This trend makes sense on a personal level, but it raises an important ethical and systemic issue. How sustainable is it for a country to heavily subsidize higher education, only to lose its best talent to other nations without getting anything in return?
More critically, as we develop future-ready curricula that make our graduates even more globally competitive with stronger soft skills, emotional intelligence, and humanised learning, they will become even more attractive to overseas markets. Sri Lanka will produce world-class professionals for other economies. At the same time, it will deal with shortages in its own essential sectors.
To address this, new policy thinking is required.
Rather than restricting migration, we must explore balanced mechanisms such as:
* Graduated payback schemes: Where professionals who migrate within a defined period after benefiting from free university education contribute financially to a public fund over time.
* Return incentive programmes: Encouraging professionals to return after gaining international exposure through support for entrepreneurship, research, or public service roles.
* Global service bonds: Allowing graduates to work abroad but commit to contributing to Sri Lanka in defined ways (e.g., through remote services, training, or national projects).
These ideas are not meant to punish. Instead, they show a principle of shared responsibility. The state invests in its citizens, and citizens understand they have a duty to give back, whether through time, money, or service, as already demonstrated by a handful of those who have migrated and are enjoying successful careers elsewhere.
As part of a broader humanization strategy, such policies would ensure ethical reciprocity, build local capacity, and reinforce national development, even in a globally mobile era.
Conclusion
Sri Lanka has an opportunity to lead by integrating humanisation concepts into economic, technological, and educational policies. As the global economy moves forward, with automation and AI-driven growth, we must ensure that our future is not jobless growth and social fragmentation. AI is not the enemy. Our failure to respond with ethical and systemic foresight is. Reimagining the future must begin at the foundation. School education is not just a feeder into the university system; it is where the character, mindset, and emotional resilience of tomorrow’s workforce are formed. Therefore, now is the time to design a future where humans are not sidelined by machines but empowered by them. The future begins with the policies we shape, policies that will determine whether technology serves humanity or humanity serves technology.
Sarath S. Kodithuwakku, B.Sc. Agric.(P’deniya); MBA Marketing; Ph.D. Entrepreneurship (Stir.), MSLIM, FIMSL, is a Senior Professor in the Department of Agricultural Economics and Business Management at the University of Peradeniya and serves as Chair of the Board of Study in Business Administration at the Postgraduate Institute of Agriculture. He is currently the President of the Institute of Management of Sri Lanka. Professor Kodithuwakku’s research and policy work primarily focus on entrepreneurship, SME development, and innovation.
Over the years, he has held numerous key academic and administrative roles, including Dean of the Faculty of Agriculture, Head of Department, and Director of the Agribusiness Centre at the University of Peradeniya. He has also served as Chairman of the Sri Lanka Institute of Tourism and Hotel Management and as a board member of the Sri Lankan School in Muscat, Oman. Views are personal.
by Sarath S Kodithuwakku
