Private sector led initiative to enhance English proficiency among student community

By Shamindra Ferdinando

Education Minister Prof. G.L. Peiris says the government wants to enhance opportunities available to the student community to learn English. Prof. Peiris explained the pivotal importance of government-private sector partnership in a large scale countrywide project geared to help the student community.

The former External Affairs Minister told The Island after inspecting an ongoing smart classroom project at Susamayawardhana Maha Vidyalaya in Colombo late last week. W.A. Kapila Weerasuriya, principal of the school was also present.

Launched in early November 2019 in the wake of the failed 2018 constitutional coup, the project was meant to boost the English education to assist the student community at an early stage. Prof. Peiris said that the project would provide an equal opportunity to the student community.

Addressing the gathering at the Susamayawardhana Maha Vidyalaya, Prof. Peiris pointed out the failure on the part of the current education system to produce young Sri Lankans capable of meeting current and growing requirements in the job market. Appreciating the role played by the Brandix Lanka Limited in the implementation of the ‘Right To Read Sri Lanka’ project, Prof. Peiris emphasized the importance of consulting the private sector in the preparation of various courses of study, updating curricula as well as amendments to current and future requirements.

Both the government and the people were really grateful to the private sector for backing the project meant to reach one million students by 2021/22, the minister said.

Brandix Director Ajit Johnpillai, Senthil Eswaran (Brandix, Director, East), Assad Omar (Manager Projects) and Lawrence Vincent (Senior Executive, Projects) accompanied the Minister.

During his brief speech the minister acknowledged that it would be a very costly project.

The Island

asked Assad Omar how Brandix intended to fund the project as a single SmartBoard had been estimated to cost approximately around USD 1,000, the private sector official said that they were having negotiations with the supplier Singer PLC in a bid to lower the price. Responding to another query, Omar said that they commenced preliminary work a couple of months before the Nov, 2018 launch of the project.

Funds made available by donors would be exclusively used to procure SmartBoards; the Brandix spokesperson said adding that the company and the Omar family were to meet other expenses, including administration, logistics, teacher training, maintenance and installation.

Described as a community driven non-profit organization, the project is implemented with the Education Ministry and ‘EnglishHelper Global’, Brandix official said that it was carried out in eight countries having initiated in India in 2013. The countries accommodated in the project, in addition to India and Sri Lanka, are Vietnam, Bangladesh, Colombia, Nicaragua, Honduras, Sierra Leone and Nigeria.

Both the Education Ministry and Brandix acknowledged that the success of the project would depend on close cooperation among all stakeholders, including Provincial Ministries of Education.

Prof. Peiris said that his ministry and the government would provide all possible assistance to ensure the countrywide implementation of the project. The ‘RightToRead SriLanka’ project could make a big difference, if implemented, diligently, Prof. Peiris said, highlighting the importance of the project against the backdrop of the subject’s poor performance at the GCE Ordinary Level examination. According to the latest data available, 38 % failed the subject at the CCE OL, the minister pointed out in a brief interview with The Island, adding that the failure rate at the last year’s examination was three times higher than Sinhala and Tamil. The minister said that assisting the student community to learn English was part of the overall thinking of the incumbent government to prepare the younger generation for future challenges.

The minister expressed confidence that the private sector and other well-wishers could throw their weight behind the ambitious project intended to make a genuine difference.

Sri Lanka schooling system comprised 353 national and 9.841 provincial schools with a combined student population of 4.2 mn.’RightToRead SriLanka’ project has been so far implemented in the Northern and Sabaragamuwa Provinces.

President Gotabaya Rajapaksa, on a number of occasions, discussed urgent need for educational reforms to meet current and future challenges. President Rajapaksa is on record as having said that the education system did not produce employees with qualifications to meet current requirements.