ANC Education, which has for over a decade been a champion in the private education sphere, has unveiled extensive plans for preschools and Montessoris through the introduction of the Modern Montessori International curricula in Sri Lanka.

ANC-MMI will be the first Montessori in Sri Lanka using the Modern Montessori International (London) teaching method which includes the current trends and systems popularly used in Europe and Asia, here in Sri Lanka. Principal of ANC-MMI Pre-School Mutiara Hoole, who possesses many years of teaching experience in the MMI method, advocates the MMI curricula espousing that it gives the 18 month to six years olds a better, more competitive edge when it comes to higher education, which today is extremely competitive.

"The very high quality and standards that are maintained within the MMI Preschool method is unmatched. In fact, Singapore has one of the best models of MMI Preschools which for the most part is emulated here at the Colombo ANC-MMI Preschool. The curriculum, equipment, infrastructure specifications and even customised workbooks give the children studying at the ANC-MMI Preschool a flavour of the holistic education that we impart to the children under our care." She also explained with the quality and standards being above average it has been unequivocally proven that children moving from ANC-MMI to regular secondary school are well equipped to cope with the extensive curricular they are faced with especially at international schools.

According to General Manager-MMI for ANC Education Aruni Mahipala, ANC's foray into the preschool arena is simply another sagacious and pragmatic step to ensure that Sri Lanka gains a better foothold when it comes to prepare education for a globalised milieu. "While our country's education standards are considered high, there has always been debate about the applicability of such education to the real world. This is something we have seen in the students who come to us for higher education at ANC and which is what spurred us to acquire Wycherly International, which offers the Cambridge curricular from Grade 1 onwards, allowing students to be prepared for the challenging demands of graduate and postgraduate degrees which can be obtained from ANC or any other higher education institution.
We've now taken the natural progression of bringing in the younger children into our fold by introducing the high standards of MMI (London) into our group so that the standards are continually maintained, from the beginning of their educational life, right until they go out into the real world."

Adds the Principal: "The workbooks for English and Mathematics, which inculcate internationally recognised teaching methodologies for example, add a rich dimension to the students' learning capabilities, helping these students to effortlessly transit to the Primary Cambridge curriculum from Grade One, which is conducted at Wycherley.

The ISO 9001:2000 certified MMI is a hallmark of excellence and quality assurance in early childhood education and has since its inception just under two decades ago collated numerous prestigious awards and accreditations including the Singapore Franchise Mark, Singapore Quality Class, Singapore Quality Class for Private Education Organisations, CaseTrust for Education, Open & Distance Learning Quality Council (U.K.) and British Accreditation Council (U.K.). Mahipala informs that with the model ANC-MMI Montessori which houses nearly one hundred children being established in Colombo, there are expansion plans to other areas being speedily implemented.

"We are looking at both establishing and acquiring current montessoris in the suburbs and also larger cities in Sri Lanka, to ensure that the holistic education we offer to children at the beginning of their lives is accessible to all. We strongly believe in building a sturdy educational foundation for children and that should not be confined simply to Colombo but be accessible to children everywhere.

The model in itself is uncomplicated and given that we have already introduced quality standards and educational processes and methodologies into the system, emulating them in multiple places will not be difficult."