Having created a pathway to Gateway's students to study ICT from Foundation Level (4 years of age) to Graduation Level, Gateway continues to expand their presence both locally and globally. With the two new destinations - Georgia and Myanmar, Gateway's international reach now includes ten countries in three continents. Over the years, Gateway in partnership with NCC Education, has introduced the programme in China, Malaysia, Indonesia, Dubai, Pakistan, Nigeria and Bangladesh. In Sri Lanka, tens of thousands of children take Gateway's programme of study in 25 centres spread across the country. The development of an educational programme in Sri Lanka that has the ability to be offered overseas is a rare achievement in the history of education in Sri Lanka.
Gateway offers more qualifications than any other children's ICT programme available in the world.
Students receive certificates, validated by NCC Education, UK on successful completion of every level. Students also have a choice of receiving certification from the International Curriculum and Assessment Agency (ICAA) [endorsed by University of Southampton] or the Cambridge International Examinations (CIE) or both at the successful completion of Key Stages 1 to 3.
Students who achieve Tiers 8 and 9 have the knowledge and skills to achieve the International Computer Driving Licence (ICDL) qualification awarded by the ECDL Foundation.
Key Stage 4 coaches students for public examinations such as Edexcel OL/IGCSE Computing, Cambridge OL/IGCSE Computer Studies and Edexcel GCSE ICT. Students can go on to sit the above examinations to achieve the relevant qualifications.
International endorsements
Gateway's courses are endorsed by Edexcel, UK, the organisation responsible for London OL and AL examinations. Referring to Gateway's course material, Edexcel has endorsed them to be ideal preparatory material that provides everything students need to succeed at GCSE, IGCSE or OL Computer Studies and/or ICT. Gateway has also received commendation from the London Metropolitan University. A spokesman of the University has stated that they are very pleased to be supporting Gateway's ICT training programme for children. They have further said that this programme is building the foundations of the future. The University works with NCC Education to develop computing expertise throughout the world, bringing British education into a large number of countries.
Achievements
Farah Samantha Wijayakumara and Muhammad Aadhil Niyas, who followed the programme of study offered by the Gateway Kids School of Computing won Gold Medals at the last Edexcel, UK Awards Ceremony, for receiving the highest marks for Computing at London OL and ICT in the London IGCSE examinations. While Farah received the highest mark in the world for OL Computing, Aadhil received the second highest in the world for IGCSE ICT.
Shayamalraj Kandasamy of Gateway College, Kandy won a Gold Medal for receiving the highest mark in Sri Lanka for Advanced Level Applied ICT at the recently held Edexcel, UK Awards Ceremony.
Through these achievements, Gateway has demonstrated the advantage of taking a structured ICT training programme from a young age in order to produce good grades at international examinations.
At a recently concluded National Schools Software competition, Gateway College, was placed the Runner-up. Navin Sharmendra Gunatillaka and Ramitha Indula Soysa were selected to the national pool to represent Sri Lanka. In the Young Computer Scientist Competition organised by the Sri Lanka Association for the Software Industry (SLASI), 13 year old Chanuka Yasawardene, a student of Gateway, won the Gold Award.
In Sri Lanka OL ICT Examinations, Gateway Kids School of Computing has lived up to the expectations of its parents for the second consecutive year by obtaining a 100% pass rate in ICT (Computing) at the December 2008 Sri Lankan OL examination. 98% of these students secured a C grade or higher with 54% A grades and 30% B grades. These are the overall results where Sri Lanka OL ICT is offered at Gateway branches in Colombo, Nugegoda, Panadura, Negombo, Gampaha, Wattala, Chilaw, Kandy, Kurunegala, Ratnapura, Kegalle, Bandarawela, Galle, Matara and Tangalle. Similar results have been obtained in a few Private Schools too where Gateway is responsible for the delivery of the ICT curriculum.
A residential training workshop was held for over 250 teachers of the Gateway IT centres recently at the Heritance, Kandalama . |
E-mail