KOICA holds 2019 Curriculum Development Committee Workshop of Technological NCoE

KOICA (Korea International Cooperation Agency), the grant aid division of the Korean Embassy, held Curriculum Development Committee Workshop of Technological NCoE (National College of Education) on 29 and 30 January at the NIE (National Institute of Education). Nearly 40 people, including many Government officials, participated in the workshop. Following this, another Curriculum Development Committee Workshop will also be held in February. This workshop is done as a part of the KOICA-funded project ‘Establishment of National College of Education and Teacher Training System for Technology Stream’. The purpose of these workshops is to enhance the technical education by fostering technical teachers. KOICA, in cooperation with the Ministry of Education, is establishing the new ‘NCoE of Technology Stream” in Kuliyapitiya worth $ 13 million.

Korean Experts dispatched by KOICA, CDC (Curriculum Development Committee) members of each department, and other related stakeholders took part in the workshop. NIE Director General Dr. Gunasekara and KOICA Education Officer Kim Se Jin gave the opening speech, followed by an introduction of the KOICA Project by Project Manager Sung Jung-Ae of Dong-Eui University.

While delivering the opening speech, Dr. Gunasekara asserted that the establishment of NCoE is a very good opportunity to invest in the development of Sri Lanka, consequently its economic development. “I pay my gratitude to KOICA and PMC; this great donation by the Korean government is what we expected in a decade,” she mentioned. At the end of her speech, she emphasised the importance of ‘thinking global and acting local’, therefore meeting the needs of the local situation in a globally accepted way.

Kim noted that since one of the most crucial setbacks of the country is the lack of human resources in technology sector, KOICA has agreed to cooperate with the Government of Sri Lanka to establish the NCoE and foster teachers in technology stream.

The outputs of this workshop will be upgrading the current education curriculum, finalising the new curriculum structure and formulating the proposal for approval, establishing plan of curriculum development (syllabus), and canvassing suggestions for the new NCoE.

One of the current biggest obstacles in the development of Sri Lanka’s economy is unemployment of GCE A/L completed students, who do not continue their higher education in any vocational institutes or universities. This issue affects the quality of the labour market in Sri Lanka and creates unemployment. Furthermore, the insufficiency of students with basic skills and the lack of facilities and equipment which are appropriate to education also hinders economic development in Sri Lanka. This is in the same vein as the lack of qualified teachers with practical knowledge and skills meeting the demand of related industries and labour market.

In order to alleviate the following difficulties, the Governments of Korea and Sri Lanka agreed to establish the new NCoE, including the teacher training system for the technology stream. KOICA seeks to foster competent pre-service and in-service technical teachers with field experience in Sri Lanka, and consistently promotes the quality of technical education and its application on scene.

As a step forward, the workshop has been designed to map the current situation of Sri Lankan technical education and to grasp the challenges in training pre-service technical teachers. This will also enable the enhancement of the teachers’ teaching competency and expertise through KOICA and to put weight on planning, teaching and estimating classes according to students’ interests and needs, considering their education and career pathway.