Business Education

Intel Sri Lanka strengthens commitment to education

Broadening its efforts to support educational transformation in Sri Lanka, Intel announced plans to extend education programmes in the country over the next quarter.

Intel will also increase support to government efforts to achieve ICT development to help build 21st Century Thinking Skills and technology innovation.

As part of its worldwide efforts, Intel is committed to supporting international organizations and governments to advocate for the 21st century educational excellence and encourage the effective use of technology in education.

Programmes in Sri Lanka are aimed at supporting teachers and students in the effective integration of technology to help improve education and learning processes while advancing maths, science and engineering education and research.

Intel's main programme in Sri Lanka is the Intel Teach programme which has been deployed in the Western, Central and Uva provinces with the support from the Ministry of Education.

Intel has also partnered with the Ministry of Education, National Science Foundation (NSF) and Institution of Engineers Sri Lanka (IESL) to strengthen the "Sri Lanka Science and Engineering Fair (SLSEF)" and to sponsor the winners of it to Intel International Science and Engineering Fair (ISEF) in USA.

ISEF aims at supporting the development of a scientific temperament in students and inculcate an orientation in students at an early stage towards research, innovation and creativity.

Regional Manager for Intel in Sri Lanka Indika de Zoysa said, "At Intel, we believe that technology, despite being a valuable tool, is only as valuable as society's ability to harness it.

This is why helping students develop and strengthen the skills to help them succeed in the global economy lies at the heart of Intel's global commitment to education. Because one teacher can reach generations of students, training teachers is an important way Intel fulfills this commitment."

The Intel Teach programme - the most successful professional development program of its kind - was launched over a decade ago and is designed to help teachers around the world integrate technology into classrooms.

To date, the program has trained more than four million teachers in more than 40 countries, including Sri Lanka.

Progressive Wales MBAS from Imperial of Higher Education

Imperial Institute of Higher Education (IIHE), incorporated in Sri Lanka in October 1996 is one of the oldest institutions offering foreign internal degrees in Sri Lanka and the only validated centre of the University of Wales in the country offering the University of Wales Master of Business Administration (MBA) programmes.

University of Wales is the second largest federal university in UK awarding 14,000 initial degrees and about 3,000 higher degrees annually, also making it the second largest degree-awarding body in Great Britain. Prince Charles, the Prince of Wales is the Chancellor of this university.

Students of Imperial Institute of Higher Education can obtain a University of Wales' internal degrees here in Sri Lanka with substantial savings in costs.

The Imperial Institute of Higher Education is committed to providing education, which is relevant to students' careers, needs and the needs of the country to support the development process.

On a regular basis, curricular, teaching methods, modes and schemes are modified or added to, in order to accommodate changing socio-economic conditions and pattern of lifestyles. All courses are continually updated in response to the needs of employers and perceptions of students.

The celebrated and well patronized IIHE MBA programme aims to provide a postgraduate management qualification to managers moving from functional levels to the strategic levels.

This qualification is also for those technocrats who wish to transform themselves from managing technology to general management. It thus attempts to respond to a need in the vitally important area of management, for men and women aspiring to be top managers in Sri Lanka and abroad by supporting the realization of their full potential.

Dr. Thilak Weerakoon C.E.O./Academic Director Imperial Institute of Higher Education said "A student who registers with us is registered automatically as an internal student of the University of Wales.

Using radio instruction to educate child labour

In low-income countries like Tanzania where half of the population lives in extreme poverty, child labour is considered as a means of survival for many families and not necessarily abuse.

Children in Tanzania are compelled by economic needs to trade-off school time to work as rock crushers in local quarries, farm workers, miners, domestic servants, and prostitutes - in most cases under intolerant and exploitive conditions.

In rural Tanzania, one out of three children between the ages of 10 and 14 works outside the family.

According to the International Education Systems (IES) a division of EDC, children in Tanzania provide much of the manual and machine-based labor in tobacco, coffee, tea, sugarcane, and sisal (fibrous crop used in the manufacturing of rope) plantations.

For example, in one of the coastal regions in the country, 30 percent of the sisal plantation workers are children aged 12 to 14.

These children work up to 11 hours per day with no specific rest periods, six days a week.

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