IT for A-L

First IT paper in 2011:

Chaminda PERERA

Education Minister Bandula Gunawardene yesterday said that the first batch of Advanced Level students in Government schools are prepared to sit for the IT paper next year.

He said the Government has provided ICT facilities to 5,000 out of 10,000 schools in the country and major improvement in the ICT sector can be expected within next few years.

The Minister was speaking at the awards presentation to students who showed outstanding performances at the national level school ICT championship 2010 competition at the HNB auditorium in Colombo. Korean Ambassador in Sri Lanka Dr Choi Ki Chul was the Guest of Honour. The competition was held in Government and international schools under four categories.

H C P Weerasinghe of Royal College, Colombo, UGKWS Palitharathna of Kingswood College, Kandy, W M Umesh Jayasinghe of Nalanda College and P B G Ruwan Kumara of Wijesinghe Maha Vidyalaya were adjudged winners under four main categories and they received certificates and a gift pack from the Minister.

He said the students and teachers in rural schools have shown high standards of creativity and talents in IT related competition and the development in the IT field will help alleviate poverty.

The Minister added that Korean language will be included to the school curriculum in addition to Chinese and Russian languages in the future.

He said the Korean Government has assisted in many ways for the uplift of education in Sri Lanka. The Minister said that Sri Lanka will receive a Korean donation worth over Rs. 900 million for the uplift of education by October 22. The Minister said the donation includes 50,000 black boards and 2,000 pianos to the Government schools. The Minister opined that the Government’s aim of knowledge based development will only be possible if children at grassroots level are given more opportunities to unearth their intuitive talents.

He added that China, Japan and South Korea developed creativity of their younger children by allowing to study in their mother tongue until they reach a particular standard in the school.

The Minister said the South Korean children should study in their mothertounge until they reach the 7th standards and this initiative has instilled the sense of creativity among the Koreans.