Synergy, EDEX team up for Rs. 20 m school scholarship programme

In a move that takes the promoting of professional marketing education to greater heights, Synergy School of Marketing entered into a partnership with EDEX to offer scholarships for Advanced Level (A/L) students in Colombo and Kandy amounting to a staggering Rs. 20 million.

This is an annual scholarship programme for which schools in Colombo and Kandy have been selected commencing from the post A/L batch of 2011. The schools selected from Colombo include Royal College, Ananda, Nalanda, St. Joseph’s, St. Peter’s, S. Thomas’, Holy Family, Vishaka, St. Bridget’s, Ladies College, Museaus and Bishops.

Schools such as Trinity, St. Anthony’s, Hillwood, Kingswood, Dharmaraja, Kandy Girls High School, Kandy Convent, Mahamaya, Pushpadana Girls College and St. Sylvester’s College make up the list of Kandy schools who would benefit from this programme.

Since launching in 1999 Synergy has been in the forefront of professional education and has contributed immensely towards developing Sri Lanka’s future professionals.

“Our success has been based on the unwavering philosophy we share that to be effective in the education industry the passion to impart knowledge and to do so ethically is paramount. Once monetary gain eclipses passion and ethics, one’s days in the business are numbered. We have seen this happen time and again,” said Mohamed Adamaly who together with Michael Ranasinghe co-founded ‘Synergy’.

Added Ranasinghe: “Unlike most scholarship schemes ours is one with absolutely no commercial strings attached to the students who benefit from the programme. So much so that they too like all students in Synergy are not used for any form of promotional activity of Synergy. Their names are not even disclosed to the lecture panel and as documented in our ethics statement any prize won by a student is not used for commercial gain. We believe that the success of a student is solely theirs as a result of the extra effort put in and it is not ethical for an institute or lecturer to use the student for commercial gain.

“If we used the 75 prize winning students of Synergy to appear in commercials on our behalf, the claims of competitors would be reduced to a joke. If a lecturer or institute takes public credit for the success of a student they should also take public responsibility for a student’s failure as well.”

Another feature of the Synergy EDEX scholarship programme is that neither Synergy nor EDEX officials get involved in the selection of students. This is totally managed by the head of the school or the principal. This ensures that students who are most deserving and have excelled in several spheres in school get selected. It is not solely based on academic achievements but all round performance in school.

EDEX Chairman Kamal Abeysinghe commented: “We are indeed very happy to partner with Synergy in this important endeavour to offer 180 scholarships to deserving youth who will directly benefit from this programme. CIM is a world class qualification that will lead all the scholarship recipients to gainful employment once completed, together with required training.”

“Living up to our vision, EDEX is always committed to support the cause of empowering Sri Lankan youth to be globally competitive through right education and acquisition of market relevant skills. We deeply value the spirit of Synergy School of Marketing in expressing their corporate social responsibility through this invaluable offer and look forward to continuing this partnership in the years ahead.”

A special weekday morning programme was launched by Synergy to accommodate the Post A/L students as they require time to grasp the challenges they would encounter in professional education and the corporate world. Upon the completion of their Certificate Level in CIM they would join the rest of the over 350 students Synergy has across all levels. Lalindra Ranaweera head of operations at Synergy commented “The programme design gives the students flexibility to follow another programme of study of their choice or have time to attend to their post A/L school activities or sports.”

The programme for Colombo gets underway on 3 October and end of November for schools in Kandy. All schools selected have to submit their lists of students to EDEX or Synergy or contact the EDEX secretariat at Royal College Skills Centre.