English education program in Eastern Province

Sanjeevi Jayasuriya

The International Scholar Educational Services (Pvt) Ltd has sponsored an English educational program in the Eastern Province to mark its tenth anniversary.

Guests at the opening ceremony

"We wanted to do a project to help the less privileged in this country celebrating our tenth anniversary in operation. Our choice was the Eastern Province to sponsor an English language workshop for 600 students from 12 schools in six Educational Zones. The selected educational zones were Muttur, Kalkudah, Kinniya, Kantale, Maha Oya and Dehiattakandiya, said the Institute's CEO Keerthi Jayasuriya.

"The Governor of the Eastern Province Rear Admiral Mohan Wijewickrama sought our services in career counselling in the past. When he contacted me I asked him whether there is anything that I can do in the Eastern Province. He came up with this idea. We thought it was appropriate as this year was declared the year of English and Information Technology," he said.

"Once the formal discussions were over we agreed to undertake this project with the help of our partner institutions in Australia and Malaysia. Two institutions joined us as co-sponsors, the Swingbourn University of Australia and the Melbourne Institute of Business and Technology. Three other Institutes, RMIT University, Deakin University in Australia and Sunway University Malaysia has joined us as donors in this project.

In implementing the project the Ministry of Education of the Eastern Province selected the worst affected schools in the province. They selected 12 trainers as resource persons and a manual was prepared to deliver the course," he said.

"The importance of this project is to improve the level of English education in the country, he said. The national pass rate for English is only 31 percent and the pass rate in the Eastern Province is as low as 17.5 percent.

The economy in the Province is expected to grow and tourism too will grow. The students in this region need to have a knowledge of English to derive benefits from the development taking place. Our efforts will be significant as they will be able to enhance their competence," he said.

International Scholar Educational Services (Pvt) Ltd is a career counselling and student placement institute with 50 placement centres worldwide since 1999. It has helped over 100,000 students to find suitable educational destinations and provides free services. It generates income from the institutions it represents. In 2006, it conducted a National Career Symposium at the BMICH in collaboration with the Ministry of Education and the Post Graduate Institute of Management.