2026 Passport Rankings: Positioning Sri Lanka's Passport as a strategic national asset

SRI Lanka is currently going through educational reforms, along with economic changes and other initiatives.

- By Prof. Nalin Abeysekera

SRI LANKA

Over the past seven to eight decades, Sri Lanka has undoubtedly achieved notable progress in many areas. At the same time, this journey has also come at a cost, with certain values, capabilities, and opportunities gradually eroding along the way. There needs to be a proper understanding of this. f we reflect carefully, we can see that even before colonial rule, we experienced several remarkable golden eras. The time has now come to reflect on al of these periods.As an example, in the 2025 Human Development Index (HDI) released by the United Nations Development Program (UNDP), Sri Lanka is ranked 89th out of 193 countries, leading the South Asian region with strong achievements in education, health, and income. It is better for us to understand what is meant by the Human Development Index (HDI). HDI is a metric ranking that was introduced by the United Nations. For this ranking, you need to consider the following aspects:

1. Countries by average achievements in health (life expectancy)

2. education (schooling years), and

3. standard of living (GNI per capita)