Dialog awards merit scholarships to O/L top performers
Dialog Axiata awarded merit scholarships to 30 students who excelled at the G.C.E. Ordinary Level (O/L) examination in 2012 and intend to continue their secondary education in the mathematics stream. The scholarships were granted to the five students who scored top marks in O/L mathematics from all 25 districts and the five top all-island performers.
The certificates were handed over to the beneficiaries by Education Minister Bandula Gunawardena, at a ceremony held at Devi Balika Vidyalaya in Colombo, recently.
Speaking at the event Minister Gunawardena commended Dialog Axiata’s focus and contribution to the advancement of the education sector in Sri Lanka, including Nenasa, which has bridged the education gap to rural parts of the country.
“There are various i nitiatives launched by parties under the umbrella of corporate social responsibility that don’t contribute to sustainable child development activity. My ministry is looking at introducing a programme to establish accepted benchmarks for all such activity focusing on schools and children. Dialog through programmes such as Nenasa and merit scholarships has demonstrated its unrelenting commitment to the sector,” the minister remarked.
The Dialog merit scholarships programme has benefitted close to 600 students all over Sri Lanka during the past 10 years, including its parallel programme which recognizes and rewards top performers at the G.C.E. Advanced Level examination, supporting them throughout their undergraduate studies.
The programme aims to empower outstanding students from all parts of the country to accomplish their educational aspirations and the broader objective of enriching knowledge capital of our future generations. The students are selected by the Education Ministry and the University Grants Commission and are based on the results of each district. Scholarships have also been extended to differently-able students.
The Nenasa distance education network is a gift from Dialog Axiata to the government of Sri Lanka and the Education Ministry, broadcasting the national educational curriculum via satellite to 2,000 underserved schools all over Sri Lanka.
Modern Montessori International (MMI) Group has contributed US $ 50,000 towards the setting up of a mobile library to promote reading among youths in the Jaffna Peninsula.
Besides the mobile unit, 10,000 books were also donated to the Jaffna National Library. More than 3000 school children from 38 schools are expected to benefit from this initiative.
Headquartered in London, MMI Group has a global presence spanning across three continents and is currently operating close to 100 pre-schools and teacher training colleges in 16 countries.
MMI Group Chairman and CEO Dr. T. Chandroo noted that the donation of the mobile library is worthy effort and he was very happy to be able to provide the resources to the children in Jaffna.
He said, “We are confident that this project will go a long way in providing greater access to books and learning opportunities among the less privileged children. We strongly believe in giving back to society in a meaningful way and that no child should be deprived of learning whatever his or her social background.”
He further explained that the charitable act is part of MMI’s global effort to help children in need.
During a previous visit to Jaffna, Singapore Minister for Foreign Affairs and Minister for Law K. Shanmugam had received requests from locals for education aid for their children.
Dr. Chandroo gladly agreed to contribute when he was made aware of the requests. Together with Singapore’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA), Singapore National Library ( NLB), Singapore Ceylon Tamils Association (SCTA), Sing apore Inter national Foundation (SIF) and other donors, the project was made possible and it was formally launched by K. Shanmugam recently. The ceremony was witnessed by many distinguished guests.