NDB continues to support national education vision
As a responsible corporate citizen, NDB strives to make meaningful contributions to the society through its strategic sustainability initiatives that aim to inspire the sustainable growth of a progressive Sri Lanka.
In an effort to mobilize this strategic view on sustainability, NDB joined hands with British Council of Colombo on a unique initiative to enhance the teaching skills of secondary English language teachers of government schools; thereby improving the standard of English teaching in Sri Lanka.
This project began in 2012 with an initial batch of 120 secondary English language teachers in the North Western Province who successfully completed the training programme. With the success of the project and the positive impact it had on the teachers, it was decided to extend this initiative islandwide.
Thus, a second batch of 179 state school English teachers followed the programme conducted by British Council in partnership with NDB last year. Recognising the many benefits afforded to the national education vision through this programme, NDB joined hands with British Council for the third consecutive year, with the renewal of the financial sponsorship of the training programme for year 2014.
The teachers that have been enrolled for this year’s training programme have been selected from the schools included in the government’s ‘1000 Schools Project’, covering a majority of the provinces; thereby entailing greater consensus with the national education vision of the country.
Commenting on the initiative, NDB Chief Operating Officer Indrajit Wickramasinghe stated, “In today’s globalised context of diplomacy and business, the importance of English cannot be denied or ignored since English is the most common language spoken everywhere. With the help of developing technology, English has been playing a major role in many sectors including medicine, engineering and education, which, in my opinion, is the most important arena where English is needed.
Particularly, in this important era of development, future generations of Sri Lanka need to be well equipped to make use of this widely spoken language to exploit forthcoming opportunities and position the country positively on the world map.
Enhancing the teaching skills of secondary English teachers results in the students being impacted positively and this sustainable foundation will be continuously passed on to several batches of students. Thus the teachers who benefit from this initiative would in turn impact on a multitude of students islandwide.
Consequently, we believe that a better standard of English teaching in the country will result in promoting better employment opportunities for our younger generation by enabling them to find high-quality jobs while improving our overall communication with the world as a progressive nation.”
“Since last year, we have made this initiative an endeavour of national significance by linking it with the government’s project to develop 1000 secondary schools which mobilises the national vision for education. NDB believes that supporting the 1000 schools project through this strategic sustainability initiative will contribute to uplift the standards of education in the country and thereby contribute to the efforts of alleviating poverty in Sri Lanka,” Wickramasinghe further stated.
Commenting on the project, British Council Country Director Keith Davies said, “What we do in English creates opportunities for millions of people around the world. Improved English skills can open doors to education, employment, mobility and international engagement. It can also crucially help build connections between different cultures and countries – which is why it remains central to our core mission as the UK’s official cultural relations organisation.
In Sri Lanka our work in English takes many forms. This project which we deliver in partnership with NDB Bank is one example. Last year, we trained 179 secondary school English language teachers from six provinces and this year we are targeting different geographic areas and aim to train over 200 teachers.”
British Council in Sri Lanka is the UK’s international organisation for educational and cultural relations and helps people around the world develop English language skills.
NDB’s wider approach to sustainability is supported by three pillars of strategic, philanthropic and operational initiatives; the strategic initiatives revolve around the subjects of entrepreneurship and education. NDB continues its efforts to empower the youth of the nation through multiple projects that place emphasis on issues that are critical for sustainable economic growth and the future success of the nation as a whole.