Capacity building training courses for Lankan education professionals by India’s NITTR

India has facilitated five customised capacity building training courses for educational administrators, officials, curriculum developers and school heads by the National Institute of Technical Teachers Training and Research (NITTTR) Chennai under the Indian Technical and Economic Cooperation (ITEC) programme.

Around 200 Sri Lankan officials in the education sector are expected to benefit from these courses. The Indian offer comes in the wake of a request of the Education Ministry.

NITTTR, Chennai is organising training modules on Curriculum Design & Evaluation and Instructional Material Development for Administrators and Curriculum Developers, Enhancing Leadership Skills and Managerial Skills of School Heads, Design of Educational Applications using Web Technologies, IT Tools for Effective Administration, and Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) for Administrators.

Deputy High Commissioner Shri Vinod K. Jacob speaking at the event reiterated India’s support for capacity building training and commitment to partner with friends in Sri Lanka for sharing its expertise.

He said that because of the inability of Sri Lankan officials to undertake visits to India on account of COVID pandemic, India began conducting online Courses in early April, 2020 under the refurbished e-ITEC and since then, more than 600 participants from Sri Lanka have benefitted from online training courses in the areas of Health, Ayurveda, Governance, Petroleum and Hydrocarbon, Renewable & Alternate Energy, Urban Planning, Women Empowerment, IT and Cyber Security, Policing, Banking and Management, Education, Engineering & Technology, Management & Leadership.

National Institute of Education Director General Sunil Jayantha Nawarathna gave a special address stressing on the introducing education reforms in Sri Lanka while underlining the importance of the 21st century’s education needs.

NITTTR Director Usha Natesan spoke about the prominent role of her institute in the educational sector, including in teacher training and its collaboration with friendly countries, including Sri Lanka.

Education Ministry Director Jayani Thilakaratne, Programme Coordinator G. A. Rathy, NITTTR ITEC Coordinator G. Kulanthaivel and Technical Cooperation & HOC Counsellor Sushil Kumar also attended the inaugural session.

India offers 402- fully funded ITEC training slots to Sri Lanka every year for short term training courses towards enhancing the skill-set of officials. India also offers around 710 scholarship slots annually to Sri Lankan students enabling them to pursue undergraduate and master’s degrees and research projects in diverse subjects in India.