Sujata is a scientist turned policy analyst. Her area of expertise is strategic analysis and planning in the public sector with a special interest in education and ICT in education covering all levels of education from early childhood to tertiary. She also has expertise in electoral reforms and the political system in Sri Lanka.
Her career in policy analysis spans over nearly thirty years beginning in USA from 1994 serving as (a) Administrator of Research Support Programs at the Ohio Board of Regents, the higher education coordinating body in Ohio, USA (b) Strategic Planning Specialist at the Ohio State University, developing strategic indicators for that university, (c) Analytic Director of a team of consultants at QRC Macro International in Bethesda, Maryland, responsible for conducting and reporting on science resources for the US National Science Foundation.
Since returning to Sri Lanka in 2002 she has served as (a) Consultant to the University Grants Commission (UGC) of Sri Lanka developing a faculty quality ranking for the system and a corporate plan for UGC, and (2) Director-General of the Tertiary and Vocational Education Commission of Sri Lanka, initiating the implementation of a national vocational qualification framework for Sri Lanka.
She is currently a Senior Research Fellow at LIRNEasia (www.lirneasia.net), a regional think tank based in Colombo, Sri Lanka, and Co-coordinator of the Education Forum Sri Lanka, an independent platform for policy dialogue and advocacy in education.
Her policy outputs in education in Sri Lanka include (1) a strategic plan for the Department of Examination of Sri Lanka; (2) A strategic plan for the Ministry of education in the Eastern province of Sri Lanka (3) Corporate Plan for University Grants Commission of Sri Lanka and (4) Twenty-one policy dialogues and as many policy briefs as outputs through the Education Forum Sri Lanka (See https://educationforum.lk/category/events/). The latest policy dialogue was on “Meeting the Demand for Higher Education: Strategies Australia, Bangladesh & Sri Lanka.”
Her recent research in education includes (1) developing and testing a lesson-plan toolkit for authentic learning post-pandemic (2) a study of innovations in teaching and learning during COVID-19 in Sri Lanka and Bangladesh (3) an evaluation of ICT use in schools in Sri Lanka (4) ICT for development or ICT4D education in universities in five countries in the Asia Pacific (5) Indicators of workforce readiness for the 21st century in the context of ICT-enabled freelance work; and (6) a systematic review of factors affecting the use of ICTs in the classroom by teachers.
In her previous career as a university teacher and researcher in Chemistry she has served as a member of the faculty in the University of Sri Jayewardenepura and the University of Colombo.
Sujata holds a Ph.D. in chemistry from the University of British Columbia and a subsequent Master’s in Public Administration from the Ohio State University of USA.
See her full CV here.