Economic Civic Education: Phase I

As part of Arutha’s core mission of advancing economic knowledge and literacy among Sri Lankans, Arutha has been engaging closely with the Tea Leaf Trust to deliver economic civic education to TLT’s students, teachers and administrators.

As part of Arutha’s core mission of advancing economic knowledge and literacy among Sri Lankans, Arutha has been engaging closely with the Tea Leaf Trust to deliver economic civic education to TLT’s students, teachers and administrators. Tea Leaf Trust is a non-profit that delivers English, career guidance and critical thinking curriculums to students in the Malaiyaha Tamil community, who reside in the tea plantations of Sri Lanka.  Arutha’s partnership with the Tea Leaf Trust has shown the enthusiasm that young teachers have for civic economics and their interest in sharing that knowledge with their wider communities. 

The Malaiyaha/up-country Tamil community that resides and works on Sri Lanka’s tea estates remain systemically marginalised by state and corporate actors. Key services such as health, infrastructure and critical education are not made accessible for them. Due to this, students work much harder than those in other regions to access tertiary education and sustainable employment. Institutions like the Tea Leaf Trust (TLT) support students in these circumstances. 

‘Economics for everyone’ training workshops  

Arutha conducted 2-day in-person training sessions for 50 of TLT’s principals, teachers and trainee teachers in May 2025. The sessions were conducted in Maskeliya and Nanu Oya. The workshops consisted of interactive educational activities aimed at improving economic knowledge and literacy. The training materials covered topics such as basic economic concepts, financial literacy, information access, comparisons of the region to the national economy, the contributions of the Nuwara Eliya district to Sri Lanka’s economy, a deep dive on the tea industry and the nexus between government and economy.  

The workshops received overwhelmingly positive feedback from TLT administrators and participants. The administrators expressed their interest in incorporating similar content into their school curriculum. Due to the mutual interests of the two organisations in this idea, phase 2 of the project commenced.