Education Ministry and ICTA connect for new digital policy in schools
View(s):The Education Ministry is setting up a digital policy for the schools of Sri Lanka with Fiber and 4G connectivity as one of its primary objectives.
In a Ministry workshop, organised in collaboration with the Information and Communication Technology Agency (ICTA), industry heads gathered to discuss the future of education in technology through the formulation of a comprehensive digital education policy and guide on sectoral master plans for general, vocational and higher education sectors.
Organisations like the Sri Lanka Association for Software Services Companies (SLASSCOM), Federation of Information Technology Industry Sri Lanka (FITIS), Computer Society of Sri Lanka (CSSL) and the ICT Skills Council and the Telecommunication Regulatory Commission of Sri Lanka (TRCSL) contributed to the workshop.
The overall digital architecture of the Government of Sri Lanka and avenues of engagement available for the government were presented by the ICTA which also highlighted how this effort will contribute to achieving the national digital economy strategy that the ICTA was currently spearheading.
The TRCSL’s plan to provide Fiber and 4G connectivity to schools as a primary requirement in the future of digitising education. The organisation also plans on developing the underlying infrastructure island wide for both the delivery and consumption of education.
The collaboration between the industry and the education ministry is expected to contribute to achieving the required supply in making a 300,000+ ICT workforce which is associated with US$ three billion IT export revenue.
The intended policy aims to identify and solve major issues faced by the general vocational and higher education sectors. The expected outcome of this three stage consultative workshop series is an actionable and timed set of activities are set in place strengthened by a policy to push the broader vision of a digitally inclusive prosperous Sri Lanka.
In line with that a list of short term initiatives also have been identified and to be implemented in collaboration with various stakeholders by end of 2021. This list of initiatives is expected to make rapid development in the digital education sector.
(Tharushi Weerasinghe)