Day 11: Last day in Matara

I lectured from 9 am to 12 pm and covered the carbon, nitrogen, phosphorus and sulfur cycles. As soon as students were dismissed we were met by our driver to go to the bus station. While interacting with the students I could not help but wonder about what intense competition they had been through to get here. It turns out that out of the 300 000 or so  students who sit for the national entry exams only 20 000 are accepted. Though the literacy rate in Sri Lanka is over 92%, a mere 6.7 % of each cohort gets free university education. Another 10 000 or so goes to private colleges or training programs and an overwhelming 90% does not continue to post secondary education. The preparation for the national exams is intense and students usually supplement class with private evening tutoring.  The government has actually improved the original numbers by adding four additional university campuses for a total of 13 universities in the country. Of these 6 have a medical school. In order to allocate positions fairly the cutoff grades for very rural areas are adjusted. What is impressive is the investment being made in new facilities at the Universities. There is clearly an impressive current period of growth.

From the Central Bank of Sri Lanka 2013 report

Relatively impressive numbers.

We took the first bus from Matara to Colombo where Nalaka and his son met us to transfer to the next bus terminal and catch our connection to Kandy. We arrived in Kandy just before 8 pm. The ride was long and fortunately we had some rambutan fruit as a treat. This fruit is juicy and sweet. It grows on a mid-sized tree and is thought to be native to Sri Lanka. 

The zany looking rambutan fruit.

Our route took us from the southern coast at Matara to Kandy via Colombo. Also shown on the map is the Waulpane Cave we visited yesterday