The average communication spend (I suppose this includes postal costs also), is LKR 539/month. The prepaid ARPUs are in this range, so obviously this matches.

Now education is a different matter. The government pays for education through tax money (all education except in international schools is subsidized; the government pays teacher salaries in even the so-called private schools). So why are people spending so much on education? Is this how big the tuition bill is? If people are spending so much on tuition, perhaps that is the main cause of the improvements in educational performance written about by Harsha Aturupane of the World Bank in glowing terms recently.

When a third party (Govt) takes the buying decision and pays the consumer has no control over quality.