Uva Province celebrates progress through ICT

In keeping with its drive to improve citizens’ standard of living through ICT, the Uva Province showcased its transformation from an area that was deprived of technology to an area that can now be considered a role model in ICT led development for the rest of Sri Lanka.

With several programs launched since 2005, the province has worked closely with the Ministry of Education and Intel Sri Lanka to turn around the education scenario. The province now has close to 2,500 teachers trained in using ICT under the Intel Teach program. With over 110 Classmate PCs across six labs, students in the province have also been provided with the opportunity to experience one-to-one learning.

As part of the celebrations, Shashindra Rajapaksa, Chief Minister of the Uva Province, inaugurated the province’s sixth Classmate PC Lab to the Monaragala Royal College in the presence of Anura Dissanayake, Additional Secretary to the President’s Office, Anura De Silva, EKSP Project Manager, Uva province, Indika de Zoysa, Country Business Manager, Intel Sri Lanka, and other dignitaries at an event held in Colombo.

Speaking at the event, Rajapaksa stated, “We believe that ICT is a main driver of development today and that an ICT-enabled education system empowers individuals to contribute to economic and social progress. Working together with the Ministry of Education and Intel Sri Lanka, we have made significant progress in providing our students with ICT skills for a better future.

“From training our teachers in ICT to improving connectivity and access to relevant content for students, we are doing everything necessary to provide our students with the best learning experience.”

 “It is heartening to see how the Uva Province has leveraged ICT to bring about development. Intel’s contribution along with the efforts of the Ministry of Education will give students the opportunity to enhance their learning experience, create career opportunities and gain skills that are extremely valuable in the marketplace that can change their lives. Projects such as these will have a significant impact on the overall development of this area in the longer run,” Dissanayake said.

De Zoysa stated, “The Uva province’s commitment to ICT led initiatives has been very encouraging over the years. This has motivated us to continue to work with them and take the benefits of ICT to its citizens. In education, we are focusing our combined efforts on integrating technology into classrooms – teachers trained in using ICT to conduct their classes, locally relevant digital content available on skoool.lk that can be accessed by each student individually on Classmate PCs.”

The Intel World Ahead Program aims to enhance lives by accelerating access to uncompromised technology for everyone, anywhere in the world. In Sri Lanka, the program works closely with the Government, especially the Ministry of Education.

From 2006, the Intel Teach teacher professional development program has trained more than 25,000 teachers touching the lives of over 800,000 students across the island which adds up to 10% of the teachers, 15% of the schools and 20% of students in Sri Lanka.

Working with the University of Moratuwa, Intel has also provided on Skoool.lk, an interactive website which provides teachers and students online access to science and mathematics resources and tools set in an engaging, multimedia environment to help improve learning.

With over 3,000 unique visitors per day, the popularity of the website has encouraged Intel to work on localising the content to Sinhala and Tamil languages. Since 2008, Intel has sponsored 21 students to the Intel International Science and Engineering Fair (Intel ISEF) in the USA.

Sri Lankan students have won six awards at the event, regarded as the world’s largest pre-college science competition. Intel has also donated over 600 Classmate PCs to schools around the country under the program.