Southern students say IT key to their future
At Sri Jinarathana Maha Vidyalaya at Peraliya, Telwatte along the southern coast where more than 3,000 men, women and children perished in the 2004 December tsunami, Business Times (BT) met one of the students, K H Anura Nishantha who obtained six As, two B’s and one C at the just released OL Examination results and is the best IT student in the school.
A dark boy, beaming with delight, he told the BT that he is a member of the IT Society of the school. He, along his IT instructor - P S K Weerasinghe, both seated at one of the computer terminals at the School IT Lab, said that he would make maximum use of his IT knowledge and first follow Mathematics for the AL examination. "I want to become an engineer and I am confident I can achieve this target."
He is one of the beneficiaries of the Commercial Bank (CB) CSR Trust to empower community and individuals, a major part of which is devoted to uplift the standards of IT and English education in Sri Lanka as a national priority. The CB It-english Programme would enhance the Government's ICT penetration Programme. The CB launched its CSR Trust in 2004 to carry forward its decades-old CSR initiatives commencing with a startup capital of Rs 25 million with the fund augmented by the bank pumping in 1% of its net profit annually. The CB has spent Rs 21 million and provided 10 schools with IT Labs in 2010 and 22 schools and six institutions with IT Labs in 2011. This year so far the CB has provided five schools with IT Labs aim to reach 60 schools by the end of the year. Last week, the CB- CSR Trust with several officers led by Ms Priyanthi Perera, CSR Coordinator (Senior Manager, Operations), CB took journalists on a tour of the southern coast schools to show the progress of this scheme and the great enthusiasm the students have shown in IT studies. All the students the BT met from Year 6 to upper grades were delighted with their involvement in the programme. The BT found in some schools, some children had earlier not even seen the colour of a computer until the CB project came along. Sarath Vithana, Principal, Peraliya Sri Jinarathana MV told the BT that three of their students who followed IT have gained University Entrance and several IT students also have obtained employment with their IT knowledge. The school has come first in the IT Educational Software Competition among the Southern Province School in 2009 and was second in 2008. In Colombo, at the Ramakrishna Vidyalaya, Pamankada, a very small school serving poor Tamil children, Ms Indra Rajaratnam, Principal and the Science Teacher, Ms H Sharook were at hand to provide the group with all the necessary information. Here the BT spoke to several enthusiastic students and N. Jathusuwarma, a female student in Grade 7 said she liked the computer studies very much which would help in her ambition to become a doctor. The tour group was also taken to Thalpitiya Junior School, Wadduwa. Two students one small girl from Grade 5 - M.D. Wasana Virajini and W. Ishara from Grade 8 were at work in one computer terminal in constructing a model invitation card with a tiger in the background. The small girl shyly said "With IT knowledge, I hope to become an IT (Computer) Teacher". Ms C Jayanthi Fernando, the Principal told the BT that they have introduced IT for Grade 6 and they are being prepared for the IT subject at the GCE OL and within that period these students would then be able to face the examination successfully. Ms Shanika Dilrukshi, the IT teacher said that they intend to provide IT knowledge to all the students and students are taken in batches. CB CSR Trust is involved in formulating the modalities to launch its English education programme which is more sophisticated than the IT programme. The CB CSR projects are attached to the nearest CB branch and the activities constantly monitored The Trust also offers scholarships to undergraduates and provides them with laptop computers. One of the major problems of the students and their parents is the selection of a future career for the students. The involvement of students in IT training at small ages gives an impetus for these students to spontaneously select their future career.