Goethe-Institut Sri Lanka
Since my arrival in December 2020 the GoetheInstitut Sri Lanka had to face the most difficult challenges in our recent history, together with our friends and partners. The pandemic and its restrictions took its toll on our cultural partners, visitors, course and exam participants, our staff and their families. Still we are eager to offer the best in our services, for students and teachers. We provided our teachers with the latest equipment to be able to offer Online German language courses in all levels, and in the next year, we will be able to offer digital exams also.
Our support extends also to teaching German at schools. We are collaborating very closely with the five schools in the PASCH (Partners for the Future) network and with 50 other schools in our extended network. With the great support of the Ministry of Education we are aiming to introduce German in 100 more schools.
We are also supporting SriDaF, the German Teachers’ Association of Sri Lanka, and the German departments at the Universities of Kelaniya and Sabaragamuwa.
A focus will be the recently launched German Children’s Online University (Kinderuni), a free educational platform for children aged 8 to
12. It helps children to find answers to questions about the phenomena of the world, and enables children to learn and play in the German language.
Another special project, directed to all school children, is the Science Film Festival starting from October 2021. It presents scientific issues accessibly and entertainingly to a broad audience and demonstrates that science can be fun. Sri Lanka is participating for the sixth time and targeting more than 100.000 children.
Also our library and information services is enhancing its digital services: in our “Onleihe” (eLibrary) you can find a wide range of newspapers, magazines, books and other media in German and in translations. Online screenings of German and international films are offered regularly and free of charge. Through a VR project visitors will be able to explore Kafka’s Metamorphosis. DRIN is an international project on diversity and inclusion in children’s literature, exploring to which extent do children’s books reflect the increasingly diverse societies in which we live.
We all are missing to attend concerts and performances and we are eagerly waiting for the day when that will come back. Meanwhile we will launch a website dedicated to the innovative and diverse music scene in Sri Lanka. What is in stock for the next year? We will bring a dance performance from Germany, concerts and the exhibition “Critical Zones” from the Center for Art and Media (ZKM) in Karlsruhe. This fascinating exhibition deals with the critical situation of the earth and explores new modes of coexistence between all forms of life.
This will take place in cooperation with our local partners such as the Colomboscope,
Musicmatters, the Colombo International Theatre Festival and the Colombo International Book Fair among others. We are also supporting the cultural center Kälam in Jaffna that is organizing its own program, and we are happy that the film organization Agenda 14 that is conducting several film festivals and supporting short films was able to obtain funding from the International Relief Fund for a second year. The Goethe-Institut is also closely collaborating with the Alliance Française in Sri Lanka and is an active member of EUNIC (European Union National Institutes for Culture),
Sri Lanka Cluster.