Abstract:
Despite the fact that one pivotal role of the university education system in Sri Lanka is to
fabricate proficient graduates as per the expectations by both private and public sector
organisations meeting their competent criteria, we experience situations of large number
of graduates bear with unemployment for a long period of time. One most recent remedy
taken up by the government in this direction is to employ 40,000 unemployed graduates.
The recurring issue of unemployment, under-employment and a variety of precautions
taken by different authorities to the resolve the above, hints that the current university
education system has not been able to cater to the needs of the society to a greater
extent. The problem of this study is to formulate a mechanism to minimise the above by
suggesting a framework based on reforming curriculum design. The objective of this
study is to propose a theoretical framework for the university education where the
expected knowledge, skills and attitudes can be acquired to meet the industry
requirements reducing the age-old gap. The model is devised by constructively aligning
the curriculum; learning outcomes, teaching learning: activities and assessments
addressing to three domains of learning; cognitive, affective and psychomotor. In each
domain, the curriculum is designed assigning lower levels of a taxonomy in the
preliminary years of the degree programme and progressively directing to higher levels
of the taxonomy at the higher levels the degree programme. Also within each level,
objectives, teaching, learning and assessment is constructively aligned. In conclusion,
adaptation of this theoretical framework to design the curriculum will be a milestone in
the university system in Sri Lanka to evaluate the age- old gap and meet the industrial
demand successfully.
