Nenasa TV expands coverage to 1,400 schools to bridge education gap

Nenasa TV, the satellite based television channel developed to bridge the education gap between urban and rural Sri Lanka, has expanded its reach to connect 1,400 schools with the aim of making education accessible to all.

The Nenasa program was developed under the Mahinda Chinthanaya education plan to address the disparity of access to knowledge between urban and rural Sri Lanka through ICT (Information Communication Technology). Dialog Television, a satellite-based broadcaster, is a subsidiary of Dialog Axiata. A satellite based system has almost no geographical limitations to deliver crystal clear content from the heavens.

In 2009, Ranjan Wijerathne Maha Vidyalaya in Pelwatta, Moneragala District became the first school in Sri Lanka to join the Nenasa TV program.

“I’m pleased to announce that within a short period, Nenasa has shown tremendous potential to take education to schools in the rural peripheries of Sri Lanka,” Bandula Gunawardena, Minister of Education said. “As the minister in charge of education, I sincerely wish Nenasa TV all success to grow from strength to strength to serve underprivileged schools in rural Sri Lanka.”  

The state-of-the-art satellite based distance education program is operated by the Ministry of Education, while a high quality telecast edition of the national education curriculum for Ordinary Level and Advance Level students is developed by the National Institute of Education (NIE). The education syllabus is available in Sinhala and Tamil. The developed curriculum is transmitted to the rural school network via Dialog Television.

“It is indeed a great honour and privilege bestowed upon us to be part of Ministry of Education’s first ICT based education bridge that has the ability to reach out to any part of the island via digital broadcast technology,” Kavan Ratnayaka, Group Chief Corporate Officer at Dialog Axiata PLC said.

“Nenasa is a gift from Dialog to uplift rural education in Sri Lanka. ICT has the potential of becoming the great equaliser in the sphere of knowledge and empower rural education. We together with the Ministry of Education have set an ambitious target to connect 2,000 schools to the Nenasa network by 2014.”

“It is our firm belief that knowledge is the key to maximising the potential of Sri Lankan youth across the country and Dialog would continue its support to make education accessible to all.”