Opinion Education has driven India-Sri Lanka ties despite ups and downs in the political and economic fronts

India and Sri Lanka have a long history of cooperation in this field — scholarships, student exchanges, training and capacity-building, and education fairs. It is one of the cornerstones of the relationship that has enhanced people-to-people contacts and mutual understanding over time, despite various ups and downs in the political and economic fronts.

Scholarships and fellowships are given by India to students of Sri Lanka to pursue courses in different disciplines in Indian educational institutions at the undergraduate, postgraduate and doctoral levels. Annually, about 60 scholarships are awarded for courses in all disciplines other than medicine at the undergraduate and postgraduate levels. The Indian Council for Cultural Relations (ICCR) offers scholarships to Sri Lankan nationals under the SAARC Scholarship Scheme to pursue courses at the postgraduate level in multiple disciplines.

Significantly, in June 2010, both countries launched the “India–Sri Lanka Knowledge Initiative” to “enhance links in the educational sector as a core component of their bilateral engagement” and to “tap knowledge as a key driver of economic and social advancement.” Under the same initiative, the Centre for Contemporary Indian Studies was established in 2012 as “a multidisciplinary research centre to promote activities connected with developing knowledge in Sri Lanka on contemporary studies in India and strengthening the Indo-Lanka relationship through an institutionalised network between the two countries.”

Apart from these, under a multi-sectoral grant assistance programme, India has been training numerous teachers, especially from the Plantation Tamil community, which needs support across sectors, particularly in education. Recently, India has increased the education grant given to the Plantation Tamil areas to the tune of 600 million Sri Lankan rupees (₹172.25 million or INR 172.25 million) to upgrade infrastructure of six schools in the plantation areas of Central Province and one school each in Uva, Sabaragamuwa and Southern Province.

India has also been offering technical expertise to various educational institutions in Sri Lanka in conducting a range of courses under the Study in India Programme. Educational cooperation extends to language training through the establishment of the Sri Lanka–India Centre for English Language Training (SLICELT) in Sri Lanka’s cultural hub, Kandy. Significantly, SLICELT is linked to the English and Foreign Languages University based in Hyderabad on a distance learning network “to enable training of master trainers and teachers in Sri Lanka and upgrading their skills.”

Notably, the Indian Council for Cultural Relations has been setting up chairs in Indian Studies and Indian Languages (Sanskrit, Hindi, Urdu and Tamil) in different foreign universities and institutes across the globe. An ICCR Chair in Hindi was established at Sabaragamuwa University in Balangoda in 2023 to promote Hindi in Sri Lanka. Another dimension of educational cooperation between India and Sri Lanka is in the form of an annual educational fair “to provide Sri Lankan students with the scope of opportunities available in India while also getting a chance to interact with representatives of universities and colleges from India.” The last fair took place in early 2025, featuring major Indian public and private universities, including IIT Madras and IIM Bangalore.

Since capacity-building of teachers is vital in the development of the quality of education, India can take the lead in organising Faculty Development Programmes (FDPs) and Quality Improvement Programmes (QIPs) to enhance the capacity of teachers of primary, secondary and higher educational institutions. Faculty exchange programmes should be given as much priority as student exchanges. This should be made periodic and institutionalised in the form of partnerships between the University Grants Commissions of both countries and also among central school boards of both countries. Since education is a concurrent subject, cooperation among provincial (states in the Indian case) schools and universities should be explored.

Alumni networks could be strengthened. The Sri Lankan PM herself is an alumna of Delhi University. The alumni could meet periodically to foster further cooperation in education. Sri Lanka may consider opening campuses of certain top Indian educational institutions like IITs, IISc, NITs, JNU and other central universities. India’s SWAYAM platform, which offers MOOCs (Massive Open Online Courses), could be extended to its neighbouring countries, including Sri Lanka. Academic credit sharing could be streamlined and eased. India’s latest National Education Policy (NEP) has enough flexibility in addressing all these needs.

As William Fulbright rightly remarked: “Educational exchange can turn nations into people, contributing as no other form of communication can to the humanising of international relations.” That potential must be leveraged to foster better cooperation not only between India and Sri Lanka, but also with other South Asian countries.

The authors respectively are Director and Research Affiliate, Centre for East Asian Studies, CHRIST University, Bengaluru