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116,000 Scholarships under the Presidential Scholarship Program – 2024
- Rs.824 Million Allocated for G.C.E. (A/L) Students.
- Rs.3, 600 Million for 100,000 Students from Grade 1 to Grade 11.
- Rs.288 Million for Student Monks and Sheela Matha.
- Rs.720 Million for G.C.E. (A/L) Students in ICT.
- Schools Not Yet Applied for Scholarships Urged to Apply Soon- President’s Fund.
One Hundred and sixteen thousand (116,000) scholarships are to be awarded for the year 2024 under the “Presidential Scholarship Program”, which is implemented according to the concept of President Ranil Wickremesinghe, for the upliftment of the education of the children of the underprivileged.
Accordingly, Rs. 824 million has been allocated for the scholarship program, which will provide Rs. 6000 per month for 24 months to 6000 students studying for their G.C.E. (A/L)s. Additionally, Rs. 3600 million has been allocated for a scholarship program that grants Rs. 3000 per month for 12 months to 100,000 students from grade 1 to grade 11.
In addition, Rs. 288 million has been allocated for the scholarship program offered to student monks, Seela Matha, and lay students studying in Piriven and Seela Matha educational institutes. Furthermore, Rs. 720 million has been allocated for the scholarship program jointly offered by the Regulatory Commission and the President’s Fund for students studying telecommunication as a subject for the G.C.E. (A/L) examination.
Accordingly, in addition to the existing scholarship programs, more than Rs. 5000 million will be allocated to students for these scholarship programs.
Under the two scholarship programs implemented for G.C.E. (A/L) students and children from grade 1 to grade 11, the following allocations will be made: 242 G.C.E. (A/L) students in four education zones of the Colombo district and 4866 students from grade 1 to grade 11 will receive scholarships. Additionally, 240 G.C.E. (A/L) students in four education zones of the Gampaha district and 6234 students from grade 1 to grade 11 will be awarded scholarships. In the Kalutara district, 180 G.C.E. (A/L) students in three education zones and 4390 students from grade 1 to grade 11 will receive scholarships.
In the Jaffna district, 300 G.C.E. (A/L) students and 3544 students from grade 1 to grade 11 in five education zones will be awarded scholarships. In the Mannar district, 120 G.C.E. (A/L) students and 1030 students from grade 1 to grade 11 in two education zones will receive scholarships. For the Vavuniya district, 120 G.C.E. (A/L) students and 1298 students from grade 1 to grade 11 in two education zones will receive scholarships. In the Mullaitivu district, 120 G.C.E. (A/L) students and 1028 students from grade 1 to grade 11 in two education zones will be awarded scholarships. In the Kilinochchi district, 120 G.C.E. (A/L) students and 956 students from grade 1 to grade 11 in two education zones will receive scholarships.
364 G.C.E. (A/L) students and 8392 students from grade 1 to grade 11 in 6 education zones of the Kurunegala district, 120 G.C.E. (A/L) students, and 4046 students from grade 1 to grade 11 in 2 education zones of the Puttalam district will receive scholarships.
300 G.C.E. (A/L) students and 3436 students from grade 1 to grade 11 in 5 education zones of the Batticaloa district, 420 G.C.E. (A/L) students and 4340 students from grade1 to grade 11 in 7 education zones of the Ampara district, and 300 G.C.E. (A/L) students and 2972 students from grade 1 to grade 11 in 5 education zones of the Trincomalee district will receive scholarships.
360 G.C.E. (A/L) students and 5410 students from grade 1 to grade 11 in education zones of the Badulla district, 240 G.C.E. (A/L) students, and 2994 students from grade 1 to grade 11 in 4 education zones of the Monaragala district will be awarded scholarships, while 240 G.C.E. (A/L) students and 5642 students from grade 1 to grade 11 in 4 education zones of the Ratnapura district, and 180 G.C.E. (A/L) students, and 4524 students from grade 1 to grade 11 in 3 education zones of the Kegalle district, scholarships will be provided.
360 G.C.E. (A/L) students and 6472 students from grade 1 to grade 11 in 6 education zones of the Kandy district, 240 G.C.E. (A/L) students, and 2894 students from grade 1 to grade1 11 in 4 education zones of the Matale district, and 300 G.C.E. (A/L) students and 4940 students from grade 1 to grade 11 5 education zones of the Nuwara Eliya district will receive scholarships.
240 G.C.E. (A /L) students and 4410 students from Grade 1 to grade 11 in 4 education zones of the Galle district, 240 G.C.E. (A/L) students, and 3644 students from grade 1 to grade 11 in 4 education zones of the Matara district, and 180 G.C.E. (A/L) students, and 3330 students from grade1 to grade 11 in 3 education zones of the Hambantota district will be awarded scholarships.
On behalf of 300 G.C.E. (A/L) students and 5360 students from grade 1 to grade 11 in 5 education zones of the Anuradhapura district, and 177 G.C.E. (A/L) students, and 2456 students from grade 1 to grade 11 in 3 education zones of the Polonnaruwa district will be awarded scholarships.
The President’s Fund will arrange scholarships for all selected students at the school level. Each school will receive scholarships based on its student enrolment, with details available from the Zonal Education Office. A list of schools yet to apply for scholarships has also been provided to the Zonal Education Offices. Therefore, schools that have not yet applied are urged to do so promptly.
In addition to the on-going scholarship programs, a ceremony chaired by President Ranil Wickremesinghe will soon award 5,000 scholarships to student monks at Piriven and Sheela Matha educational institutes in Colombo.
(PMD)
One person has died and 300 properties have been destroyed in bushfires that have torn across south-east Australia.
The fires have raged in dozens of locations across the country for several days, mostly in the state of Victoria, but also in New South Wales, burning through land almost twice the size of Greater London.
A state of emergency has been declared in Victoria as thousands of firefighters and more than 70 aircraft battle the blaze. Residents in more than a dozen communities have been advised to leave their homes.
Authorities fear the fires, which are being fuelled by very hot, dry and windy conditions, could burn for several weeks.
Victoria’s Premier Jacinta Allan said 30 active fires were burning across the state, 10 of which were of particular concern.
She said 350,000 hectares had been burnt across the state as of 08:00 local time on Sunday (23:00 GMT on Saturday).
“We will see fires continue for some time across the state and that is why we are not through the worst of this by a long way,” she told Australian media.
“There are fires that are continuing right now that are threatening homes and property.”
Human remains were found in the village of Gobur, near the town of Longwood, some 110km (70 sq miles) north of the state capital Melbourne, police said. The victim has not yet been identified.
Allan praised the emergency workers who worked to retrieve the body. “This is difficult and confronting work, and it takes a heavy toll.”
“The Gobur community is grieving,” she said.
Bushfire smoke is impacting air quality in many areas across Victoria, including metropolitan Melbourne.
Authorities said the fires were the worst to hit the south-east of Australia since the 2019-2020 blazes that destroyed an area the size of Turkey and killed 33 people.
(BBC)
Iran has warned it will retaliate if attacked by the US, as protesters defied a deadly government crackdown on Saturday night.
Videos verified by the BBC and eyewitness accounts appeared to show the government ramping up its response to the protests, which have spread to more than 100 cities and towns across every province in Iran.
Medics at two hospitals have told the BBC that more than 100 bodies had been brought in over a two day period. The nationwide death toll is feared to be far higher.
The US has threatened to strike Iran over the killing of protesters. Iran’s parliament speaker warned that if the US attacked, Israel along with US military and shipping centres in the region would become legitimate targets.
The protests were sparked in the capital, Tehran, by soaring inflation, and are now calling for an end to the clerical rule of Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
Iran’s attorney general said anyone protesting would be considered an “enemy of God” – an offence that carries the death penalty – while Khamenei has dismissed demonstrators as a “bunch of vandals” seeking to “please” Trump.
US President Donald Trump said on Saturday that the US “stands ready to help” as Iran “is looking at FREEDOM”.
Iran’s President Masoud Pezeshkian has blamed the US and Israel for the unrest.
“They have trained certain individuals inside the country and abroad, brought terrorists into the country from outside, set mosques on fire, and attacked markets and guilds in Rasht, setting the bazaar ablaze,” he said without providing evidence.
As protests intensify, the number of deaths and injuries recorded by human rights monitors continues to rise.
Footage authenticated by BBC Persian and BBC Verify shows security officers shooting at gatherings of protesters in Tehran, in the western Kermanshah province and the southern Bushehr region.
Multiple verified videos filmed in the centre of the western city of Ilam last weekend show security forces firing shots towards Imam Khomeini Hospital, where a group of protesters had been holding a rally.
Staff at several hospitals have since told the BBC they have been overwhelmed with the injured and dead.
BBC Persian has verified that 70 bodies brought to one hospital in the city of Rasht on Friday night, while a health worker reported around 38 people dying at a Tehran hospital.
Sources inside Iran have told BBC Persian that plain-clothes officers have been targeting people filming and on their own at the protests.
Iran’s police chief said on state TV that the level of confrontation with protesters had been stepped up, with arrests on Saturday night of what he called “key figures”. He blamed a “significant proportion of fatalities” on “trained and directed individuals”, not security forces, but did not give specific details.
More than 2,500 people have been arrested since protests began on 28 December, according to a human rights group.
The BBC and most other international news organisations are unable to report from inside Iran, and the Iranian government has imposed an internet shutdown since Thursday, making obtaining and verifying information difficult.
Nonetheless, some footage has emerged.
Several videos, confirmed as recent by BBC Verify, show clashes between protesters and security forces in Mashhad, Iran’s second-largest city.
Masked protesters can be seen taking cover behind bins and bonfires, while a row of security forces is seen in the distance. A vehicle that appears to be a bus is engulfed in flames.
Multiple gunshots and what sounds like banging on pots and pans can be heard.
A figure standing on a nearby footbridge appears to fire multiple gunshots in several directions as a couple of people take cover behind a fence.
In Tehran, a verified video from Saturday night shows protesters also taking over the streets in the Gisha district.
Other verified videos from the capital show a large group of protesters and the sound of banging on pots in Punak Square, and a crowd of protesters marching on a road and calling for the end of the clerical establishment in the Heravi district.
Internet access in Iran is largely limited to a domestic intranet, with restricted links to the outside world. But during the current round of protests, authorities have for the first time severely restricted that too.
An expert told BBC Persian the shutdown is more severe than during the “Women, Life, Freedom” uprising in 2022.Alireza Manafi, an internet researcher, said the only likely way to connect to the outside world was via Starlink satellite, but warned users to exercise caution as such connections could potentially be traced by the government.
Trump did not elaborate on what the US was considering. However, he has been briefed on options for military strikes on Iran, an official told the BBC’s US news partner CBS.
The Wall Street Journal reports these were “preliminary discussions” and that there was no “imminent threat” to Iran.
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio also spoke to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Saturday about the possibility of US intervention in Iran, they told CBS.
On Sunday, Reza Pahlavi , the exiled son of Iran’s last Shah, who lives in the US and whose return protesters have been calling for, told demonstrators that Trump had “carefully observed your indescribable bravery” in a social media post.
“Your compatriots around the world are proudly shouting your voice,” he wrote, pledging: “I know that I will soon be by your side.”
Pahlavi claimed the Islamic Republic was facing a “severe shortage of mercenaries” and that “many armed and security forces have left their workplaces or disobeyed orders to suppress the people”. The BBC could not verify these claims.
He encouraged people to continue protesting on Sunday evening, but to stay in groups or with crowds and not “endanger your lives”.
(BBC)
Rescue workers are racing to find dozens of people still missing following a landslide at a landfill site in the central Philippines that occurred earlier this week, an official has said.
Mayor Nestor Archival said on Saturday that signs of life had been detected at the site in Cebu City, two days after the incident.
Four people have been confirmed dead so far, Archival said, while 12 others have been taken to hospital.
Conditions for emergency services working at the site were challenging, the mayor added, with unstable debris posing a hazard and crew waiting for better equipment to arrive.
The privately-owned Binaliw landfill collapsed on Thursday while 110 workers were on site, officials said.
Archival said in a Facebook post on Saturday morning: “Authorities confirmed the presence of detected signs of life in specific areas, requiring continued careful excavation and the deployment of a more advanced 50-ton crane.”
Relatives of those missing have been waiting anxiously for any news of their whereabouts. More than 30 people, all workers at the landfill, are thought to be missing.
“We are just hoping that we can get someone alive… We are racing against time, that’s why our deployment is 24/7,” Cebu City councillor Dave Tumulak, chairman of the city’s disaster council, told news agency AFP.
Jerahmey Espinoza, whose husband is missing, told news agency Reuters at the site on Saturday: “They haven’t seen him or located him ever since the disaster happened. We’re still hopeful that he’s alive.”
The cause of the collapse remains unclear, but Cebu City councillor Joel Garganera previously said it was likely the result of poor waste management practices.
Operators had been cutting into the mountain, digging the soil out and then piling garbage to form another mountain of waste, Garganera told local newspaper The Freeman on Friday.
The Binaliw landfill covers an area of about 15 hectares (37 acres).
Landfills are common in major Philippine cities like Cebu, which is the trading centre and transportation gateway of the Visayas, the archipelago nation’s central islands.
[BBC]
One person dead and 300 buildings destroyed in Australia bushfires
Iran warns it will retaliate if US attacks as protesters defy crackdown
GENERAL WEATHER FORECAST FOR NEXT 36 HOURS
National Communication Programme for Child Health Promotion (SBCC) has been launched. – PM
Level I landslide early warnings issued to the Districts of Badulla, Kandy, Matale and Nuwara-Eliya extended
Rescuers race to find dozens missing in deadly Philippines landfill collapse
‘Dates have the highest sugar content to fight Coronavirus’
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