Microsoft, Education Ministry hosts ‘Innovative Teachers Students National Awards 2012’

The winners of the ‘Innovative Teachers and Students’ National Competition 2012’ were awarded and felicitated at a grand ceremony held at the BMICH in Colombo recently.

The Competition was organized by Microsoft Sri Lanka and the Education for Knowledge Society Project (EKSP) of the Ministry of Education, and the awards ceremony was held under the auspices of Education Minister Bandula Gunawardena. Jamie Harper, General Manager South East Asia of Microsoft was also a special guest at the event.

The student winners with the Minister of Education, Bandula Gunawardena flanked by Anura Dissanayake, Additional Secretary of Education Ministry and Project Director of EKSP, Jamie Harper, General Manager South East Asia of Microsoft and officials from Microsoft Sri Lanka and Education Ministry.

This is the eighth consecutive year that the Innovative Teachers National Competition was held in Sri Lanka, as part of Microsoft’s Global Partners in Learning programme. As in previous years, IT skills and knowledge of the participants were judged on par with global standards and a special focus was given to IT competency and creativity.

The competition was conducted under two categories, for teachers and students, and the winners were selected on a provincial basis by a panel of IT experts and academics according to a set of predefined measurement criteria.

More than 85,000 participants took part in the event and it is the only island wide IT competition in Sri Lanka where the private sector joins hands with the Education Ministry in a bid to empower IT education in Sri Lanka.

Addressing the gathering, Education Minister Bandula Gunawardena commended the initiative by Microsoft Sri Lanka to boost IT education, particularly in rural areas of the country. “The majority of the students who won awards and certificates for excellence in IT were from rural areas and this alone is testimony to the hard work to bolster IT education in less-privileged areas. As much as we focus on the IT knowledge of students, we also educate teachers on sharing IT knowledge with students.

We have already signed an MOU with Microsoft Sri Lanka to expand the reach of IT island wide and provide necessary IT infrastructure to rural children,” the Minister said.

He also added that the Ministry is in the process of setting up 1000 ‘Mahindodaya IT labs’ in rural schools covering all the Regional Secretary Divisions across the country. Each IT lab will have at least 40 computers and every lab will also be equipped with a ‘Language lab’ to provide English knowledge, which is necessary for IT education.

Sriyan de Silva Wijeyaratne, Country Manager for Microsoft, Sri Lanka, addressing the event, stated that there is a dire need in Sri Lanka to transform ‘class-room education’ parallel to the accelerated advancement of IT. “The dynamics of our education have changed over the years but we hardly see any change in ‘class room education’.

We still have the same old desks, chairs and blackboards etc. But we have come to a point where we should see a change in classroom education.

That is the core objective of this competition which comes out as a collective effort,” he said.

“When we take one step forward, the global IT sector leapfrogs ten steps. Therefore we do not need a new wave of IT education in Sri Lanka. The need of the hour is a “Tsunami” of IT education,” the Country Manager added.

Jamie Harper, General Manager South East Asia of Microsoft, extended his gratitude to all the stakeholders of the “Innovative Teachers and Students National Competition” which he said was a giant stride towards innovation in Sri Lanka.

He also added that Microsoft is engaged in similar activities across the world to elevate the standards of IT education.

“The most important beneficiary of the event is ‘the future of Sri Lanka’, which is represented by the students who are present here,” he said.

Anura Dissanayake, Additional Secretary of Education Ministry and Project Director of Education for Knowledge Society Project (EKSP) stated that the secondary education sector in Sri Lanka has already achieved remarkable success compared to the in the South Asian region.

“Yet we Firmly believe that we have a long way to go in reaching international ICT education standards which are required to make headway in the global knowledge society,” he said while commending the efforts made by everyone towards making the competition a success.