In a rural school in Monaragala, a single teacher manages five grades in one room. Meanwhile, at a Divisional Secretariat just two towns away, 10 clerks idle at their desks, each with little work and even less purpose. This is the lived reality of Sri Lanka’s public sector; overcrowded where it is least needed and critically hollow where it matters most.
While the country continues to maintain an administrative apparatus of over 1.17 million employees as of Q1 2024, the provision of essential services, particularly health and education, is cracking under the weight of understaffing, outdated structures, and rising attrition.
Numbers that don’t add up
Over the past decade, public sector employment has hovered above the one-million mark, peaking at 1.31 million in 2014 and fluctuating between 1.17 million and 1.28 million in recent years. But these headline figures, while vast, hide a startling truth.
“Out of the 1.4 million counted in the public sector, about 300,000 are plantation sector workers,” explained former Deputy Governor of the Central Bank of Sri Lanka Dr. W.A. Wijewardena. “Once you remove teachers as well, the core administrative public service is only around 800,000. And within that, we have a serious shortage of essential technical staff.”
According to the Department of Census and Statistics Labour Force Survey for 2023, while 14.6% of the employed population is in public administration, only a fraction belong to high-skill segments such as medical professionals, engineers, or educators. The share of professionals in total public employment is disproportionately small and shrinking.
In contrast, data from the Q1 2024 bulletin reveals that elementary occupations (mostly clerical, cleaning, and support roles) remain overrepresented within Government service, especially outside the Western Province.
When brains drain and roles remain
Sri Lanka’s brain drain is accelerating and the State is bleeding talent it cannot afford to lose. Dr. Wijewardena shared that over 300 trained professionals had left the Central Bank in just three years.
“It’s not just about salaries,” he stated. “The Central Bank pays more than any other public institution. But staff are leaving because of systemic issues, poor healthcare, failing education, weak transport, and most of all, a breakdown in the rule of law.”
This is echoed across sectors. Universities advertise academic posts and receive no applications. Hospitals suffer from shortages not because the State lacks budget lines for doctors, but because the doctors are either retiring or emigrating, and few are willing to replace them.
“There’s no standard graduation timeline for universities here,” Dr. Wijewardena said. “Even students who get in can take six years to finish a degree meant to last four, due to administrative inefficiencies. It’s frustrating, and so they leave.”
This wave of departures is a loss of institutional memory, leadership potential, and the ability to transfer knowledge to the next generation.
Reform, not relief
How does a country with too many clerks but too few doctors and teachers find its way out?
University of Colombo (UOC) Department of Economics Prof. Priyanga Dunusinghe believes that part of the answer lies in letting go. “We need to seriously consider outsourcing non-essential, lower-skilled services,” he told The Sunday Morning. “Transport, cleaning, and even some agricultural extension services in developed regions don’t need to be done by full-time public employees.”
Prof. Dunusinghe pointed to the example of past outsourcing efforts in municipal transport and screening services. These models worked but were later abandoned in the face of political backlash. “We must reintroduce them, this time with more courage,” he said.
Voluntary Retirement Schemes (VRS) are another option on the table. “If we incentivise early exits for lower-ranked, underutilised staff, we can gradually rebalance the workforce without provoking social unrest,” he said.
The digital gap
Where outsourcing isn’t feasible, digitalisation may be the best hope. Yet this is an area where Sri Lanka has barely scratched the surface.
“The current workforce needs have been calculated without accounting for the potential of digital tools,” Prof. Dunusinghe noted. “Before recruiting new mid-level officers, questions should be raised as to whether their tasks could be done by a portal or a dashboard.”
From digital school records to e-hospital management systems and Artificial Intelligence (AI)-based agricultural advisory platforms, there is vast scope to reduce manual overheads. But these systems required upfront investment, political will, and inter-ministerial collaboration, all of which had been in short supply, he explained.
Computer literacy rates among public workers are promising, ranging between 60% to over 90% in education, administration, and finance. Yet adoption of digital workflows remains slow and inconsistent.
Too many ministries, too little strategy
Another root of inefficiency lies in the fragmentation of public institutions. “We have several agencies doing nearly the same thing, especially in industries like agriculture, enterprise development, and trade,” Prof. Dunusinghe said. “Why do we still have separate departments for coconut, rubber, and spices, all with overlapping mandates?”
The Economic Transformation Act included plans to merge some of these entities under unified bodies, but the reform must go deeper and wider, he added.
Rethinking schools and hospitals
Perhaps the most politically sensitive, yet most necessary, reform lies in how we think about access to public services.
“There’s no point running a school for 30 children when you don’t have qualified teachers,” Prof. Dunusinghe said. “Or keeping hospitals open in remote areas where you can’t staff a basic emergency unit.”
He suggested a reallocation model: close underused facilities and invest in reliable transport so that students and patients can access better-equipped central institutions. “It’s about concentrating them where they can be meaningful.”
But such ideas often provoke community backlash. “We need a public conversation about quality versus proximity,” he added. “What do we value more? A nearby school, or one that actually teaches?”
Making the public sector aspirational again
Ultimately, any reform must address the core human challenge: why should smart, dedicated professionals stay in Sri Lanka’s public service?
For Dr. Wijewardena, it begins with fixing the environment. “You can’t just raise salaries and expect people to stay. The issue is corruption, rule of law, and quality education for their children. Fix that, and retention becomes easier.”
And within institutions, there must be a shift in culture. “Young professionals leave because they are not trusted, not mentored, not given room to grow. The mindset at the top needs to change.”
Raises structural concerns
Sri Lanka’s public sector continues to present a structural burden to the economy, according to Advocata Institute Chairman Murtaza Jafferjee.
Citing the latest data, Jafferjee explained that of the country’s total employed workforce of 7.91 million, 1.336 million workers were in the public sector, 201,000 in State-Owned Enterprises (SOEs), and 1.134 million in the Government sector. This puts the public sector’s share at 16.9% of total employment.
“In contrast, International Labour Organization (ILO) data shows the global average public sector employment at 10.9%,” he said. “Low-income countries at 6.7%, lower-middle-income countries at 8%, upper-middle-income countries at 11.9%, and high-income countries at 16%.”
Based on GDP per capita figures for 2024, Sri Lanka sits at the upper end of the lower-middle-income bracket. “Even against both lower-middle and upper-middle-income averages (8% and 11.9%), our 16.9% figure is significantly high,” he pointed out. “Our public sector share resembles that of high-income countries, and is far above typical comparators.”
Breaking down public sector employment, Jafferjee drew attention to several areas of concern. The defence sector, for instance, is estimated to employ around 300,000 personnel.
“The UK, with a population 3.5 times larger and with global power status, has an active military half our size. This gives us one of the highest active military-to-civilian ratios globally, about one soldier for every 69 civilians, despite being in peacetime,” he observed.
He added that a previous administration had intended to reduce this number through attrition and transition to a reserve force. “That should be urgently revived,” he said.
On policing, he noted that Sri Lanka had an estimated 90,000 Police officers, about four per 1,000 people. “India has 2.2, Pakistan 1.8, and Bangladesh 1.5. This suggests we are over-policed,” he stated.
“While our crime rates are better than regional peers (which is not saying much), we still underperform when compared to countries at similar income and population levels.” He also cited anecdotal evidence that “around 30-40% of the Police force is not deployed in regular Police activity but in protecting VIPs”.
In terms of education and health, the country employs about 250,000 and 150,000 people, respectively. “On a per capita basis, we perform well in terms of staffing,” Jafferjee said. “However, these are input metrics. What matters more are outcomes, and here we lack data.”
He highlighted that Sri Lanka did not participate in international benchmarking exercises like the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development’s (OECD) Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) tests, which limited the ability to assess comparative performance.
As for longer-term labour strategy, Jafferjee pointed out that Sri Lanka’s labour force participation remained low, around 50%, with female participation at just 35%. “Raising these figures would increase the denominator in the public employment ratio, helping correct the imbalance,” he said.
Now that macroeconomic stability is progressing, he argued that the next challenge must be growth. “This requires reforms in both tradable and non-tradable sectors, as well as in factor markets, particularly land and labour,” he said. “These reforms are essential to creating productive employment, drawing surplus labour out of the public sector, and increasing female workforce participation.”
A closing window
Minister of Labour and Deputy Minister of Economic Development Prof. Anil Jayantha Fernando acknowledged the contradictions in Sri Lanka’s public workforce, noting that while the State sector was often criticised for being overstaffed at its lower rungs, many institutions were grappling with acute shortages in critical areas.
“We have to recognise that some parts of the State sector are indeed bloated, but others, especially education, are understaffed. We face a clear shortage of teachers and this imbalance needs a strategic solution,” he told The Sunday Morning.
Prof. Fernando stated that any meaningful rebalancing of the public service would take time. “The current structure didn’t emerge overnight and resolving it will also be a gradual process,” he said, adding that the Government would outline a comprehensive programme soon.
All attempts to contact Minister of Public Administration, Provincial Councils, and Local Government Dr. A.H.M.H. Abayarathna and Ministry Secretary S. Aloka Bandara proved futile.
However, as more senior public workers reach retirement age and more graduates exit the country, the State’s ability to deliver core services is at real risk of collapse. The country cannot afford to lose another generation of educators, doctors, engineers, and civil servants and will need to implement measures that will reap benefits in the medium to long term. As Dr. Wijewardena pointed out, short-term, quick fixes will not fix these issues or make any difference.
Employment distribution
Sector
Total employed (2023)
Public sector dominance
Public administration and defence
438,156
Almost entirely public
Education
429,311
Predominantly public
Human health and social work
185,014
Largely public (especially hospitals)
Note: Employment figures are taken directly from Department of Census and Statistics reports and refer to total employment (both public and private), but the sectors listed are predominantly public sector-dominated