China and TRCSL to provide 3,000 schools with smart boards
View(s):About 3,000 schools in the country are due to receive smart boards as part of two grants offered by the Chinese Government and the Telecommunications Regulatory Commission of Sri Lanka (TRCSL).
Treasury Secretary Mahinda Siriwardena, who is in Beijing, signed an agreement with the Chinese Government for a grant amounting to USD20 million for the distribution of smart boards in local schools. Education Minister Susil Premajayantha said 1,500 schools are to receive smart boards during the first stage of this project.
The Education Ministry is to sign a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Chinese Embassy in Colombo soon.
The grant will be disbursed in three stages, with 1,500 schools to receive smart boards during the first stage, which will then be increased to 3,000 schools in the project’s second phase, the Minister said.
The distribution of smart boards will also greatly help schools which are experiencing teacher shortages, Dr Premajayantha added. He revealed a data centre and a studio will be established within the Education Ministry whereby a teacher can conduct lessons for schools which don’t have teachers for that particular subject. These lessons can be relayed, either in real time or as recordings to those schools, which can use the smart boards given to them to watch the lessons.
There are about 300 national schools in the country. Lessons from teachers in such schools too will be telecast online for students at rural schools that do not have access to teachers, said the minister. He added that fibre optic cables are in the process of being laid to schools that have difficulty in obtaining internet access.
The TRCSL meanwhile, will also provide a further 1,500 smartboards to rural schools as part of an MoU signed with the Education Ministry, Dr Premajayantha revealed. This project is now at the procurement stage. “This will allow us to distribute smart boards to about 3,000 schools within the next month.”
The project is part of the school digitalisation programme, and the objective will be to provide an education of the quality found in national schools to all other schools as well, the Education Minister stressed. -DW
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