‘The Poly’ goes into early childhood education
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Manager International Business Development, UniSA Stem, Jackson Jaensch, Prof and Dean of Education Futures of UniSA, Dr Anne-Marie Morgan and chief guest Prof. Chandrika Wijeratne
The launch of PolyCampus, a joint venture between Polytechnic Pvt. Ltd. and Edlocate Pvt. Ltd, took place this week. The launch marked a new chapter in the Polytechnic’s long history.
The launch ceremony was held at the Atrium Lobby at Cinnamon Grand Colombo on Monday, November 6. The PolyCampus is currently offering courses in Early Childhood Education, Special Needs Education and English language and communication skills for students.
Polytechnic is registered by the Tertiary and Vocational Education Commission (TVEC), and its Certificate and Diploma level courses in Early Childhood are National Vocational Qualification (NVQ) accredited.
The Poly is the only teaching centre currently offering the Early Childhood Education or Preschool teaching programmes NVQ Level 4 and 5 certificates. The latter offers the option for students to transfer to its partner university abroad for the Bachelor of Early Childhood Education (Honours) degree. Polytechnic currently collaborates with the University of South Australia (UniSA).
The evening commenced with an introduction and an insight to the history of Polytechnic – founded by Lawrie Muthukrishna, the first private business college in Sri Lanka dating back to the 1900s.
Chief guest Prof. Chandrika Wijeratne addressing the gathering
Speaking at the launch, director Renu Sivasundaram said the ‘Poly’ is addressing 21st century skills needed for the new age such as early childhood education, performance arts, IT, English language to name a few. The Poly has been a national representative of Trinity College London for many years.
She added that their aim is to deliver a quality product to their students through the Poly Campus and the programmes have been carefully picked to provide the biggest potential for post study employability as they are well recognised in Sri Lanka and abroad.
Professor and Dean of Programmes in Education at UniSA, Dr. Anne-Marie Morgan, delivering the keynote speech said that there is a 22% increase in the demand for early childhood care in Australia.
Professor Morgan further said that an Australian early development census revealed that 24% of children enter schools in a developmentally vulnerable state, stressing on the importance of early childhood education.
“It’s about investing in children. It’s about equity and all the children having access to quality early childhood education,” she said.
The chief guest of the evening, Professor Chandrika Wijeyaratne, former Vice Chancellor of the University of Colombo (UoC) who touched on current exam-oriented education systems proposed: “We could have some kind of training programmes, maybe as a CSR project with some of the rural kids, particularly the estate sector and the vulnerable groups to try and bring in some of the important aspects of modern day thoughts to them.”
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