Bilingual education and identity politics in post-war Sri Lanka

Multilingualism is widely celebrated as a quality that education should promote for purposes of peacebuilding, inter-cultural understanding and the fostering of transferable skills. But the experience of much of postcolonial Asia illustrates how language can divide as well as unite. In the conflict-ridden multicultural society of Sri Lanka, language disputes have long contributed to social tension. Bilingual education, introduced at secondary level in 2002, was heralded as advancing both skills formation and conflict resolution. This study investigates its implications for identity construction, while illuminating how various stakeholders have understood and responded to related policies. The findings suggest that bilingual education has contributed to expanding disparities between rural and urban communities, while also creating new power dynamics at the classroom level, exacerbating distinctions of social class alongside those of ethnicity. This article thus challenges romantic visions of bilingual education as a democratising measure conducive to building sustainable peace in post-conflict societies.