CRCSriLanka for Equal Education For All

Education is not equal in Sri Lanka for all. Students who live in war affected & poverty stricken villages are still struggling to learn as they have no facilities at their schools. Main problems they are facing is lack of qualified teachers and physical resources in schools + poverty.

We have already commenced this novel system and hope to integrate this interactive education platform to remote schools. After launching this system students in remote and rural schools will get the chance to learn synchronously from very qualified professional lecturers who are based in  Colombo (Capital of Sri Lanka). The lecturers will be based in a fully digitalized studio in Colombo and students from any remote schools with our fixed system can learn from them and this is highly interactive and students can ask questions from the lecturers. In emergencies like current covid19 they can learn from home via mobile app.

The biggest problem we are trying to solve is to break barrier to education in Sri Lanka. Sri Lankan government  has been spending a huge amount of money for unnecessary useless political purposes. But they have failed to address the burning issues of Education Sector in Sri Lanka. Sri Lanka has 25 Districts and it is a very shameful fact to mention that there is no equal access to education in any of these districts. Specially war affected districts in North & Eastern provinces are seriously lacking facilities for education such as  No qualified teachers, no after school classes, no proper classrooms, no computers ,no internet access, no latrine facilities and many more.

The most serious problem is lack of access to equal & quality education for children. Specially English language which is the door to  international & local job market  is very rare in remote-rural schools.

Through our solution of highly innovative Interactive mobile app + fully digitalized interactive education platform, all remote school students will get the opportunity to have equal access to high quality educational contents. Also via this system international (UK) English lecturers can be connected to remote school children to learn real British English.

We have already mentioned above , our solution is very simple but highly innovative . Its is as follows,

1) Highly Interactive Mobile App which is working on any mobile or non-mobile devise which can be powered by Internet. ( Eg: Smart mobile phones,Tabs,Laptops,Desktop Computers,Smart TVs etc.)

2) Highly interactive fully digitalized online education platform (this platform is fixed at a school classroom and then connected to the digital studio  based in capital city Colombo) which connects remote school class rooms with professional lecturers who are delivering high quality educational contents from Colombo based fully digitalised studio.

Market-Driven Digital, Innovative Education Platform for Resilience and Reconciliation.

Goal: “Inclusive, equitable quality smart education that promotes lifelong

learning opportunities for participating communities by 2022”

Objectives:

1. to promote smart education system in order to ensure equitable innovative, interactive education that is  resilience to disastrous situations

a) to boost ICT that cut across all developmental initiatives

b) enhance the knowledge on English, the international language that is the key for knowledge, international relationships and the connector in the global village

c) to upgrade “Central Technical Hub (CTH)” of CRC for the purpose of better implementation of the project initiatives

d) to develop “Digital Infrastructure” primarily within the project region that will be expanded to other locations

e) to conduct profession teacher training to ensure availability of quality Human Resources

 f) To unlock the potential of digital technologies

Outcomes: Connecting remote rural schools with digital infrastructure in order to make equal access to high quality educational contents for the underserved student population of Sri Lanka"

•  Gained access to Smart Education System
• Improved knowledge, interest and significance of ICT
•  Results-based Digital Infrastructure in place
•  Improved capacity of Teachers to deliver quality interactive education
• Equal access to quality education through the integrated interactive online digital education platform at schools.

Summary (What exactly the project intends to do and how )

This project mainly aims at transformation of conventional classroom education to sophisticated digitalized education platform that will ensure inclusive, equitable education for the students in selected region. Sri Lanka requires scientifically literate population conversant with international language and ICT to face future challenges, but due to uneven distribution of resources, students of selected region have been seriously victimized. COVID-19 created a devastating impact on education, but convinced the nation to be more innovative to be resilient to tensions. Thus this project is designed to address issues pertaining to education system 

Problem Analysis :

The most significant role of a market-driven education system is to produce human resource that satisfies the market demand. This is much crucial when an economy is in the verge of restructuring the economic system. Sri Lanka, a developing entity has been restructuring the economy (i.e. Agriculture to industry and currently into digitalized economic set up), hence it requires scientifically literate, ICT skilled, English conversant pro-active, innovative Human Resources to actively survive in the highly competitive global village

Thus, in most of the cases, Sri Lanka remains “merely as a buyer” of products of external economies. To break this concrete bottleneck, Sri Lanka requires “Market-driven Human Resources” that innovate product/services and transform the status of “Buyer” to a “Profit-oriented Supplier”.

Sri Lanka record a remarkable literacy rate reporting 98% amongst the youth. But it simply reflects the ability to read, write, comprehend and arithmetic. Digital global village demands high quality, human resources to compete with challenges. Thus, the main problem is “Whether the existing education system satisfies the market demand and contribute to any positive impact to GDP or National Income.

Under these circumstances, the government has taken novel measures, adapted different policies and formulated development plans. ICT, stream of Science and English language were more emphasized in school education. Action had been taken to distribute PCs for number of schools. Concepts such as “e-Sri Lanka” and recently formulate National Digital plan are some tremendous efforts made by the government.

Despite having plans, policies and strategies in place, certain areas remain unsolved. Lack of qualified teachers and associated resources, uneven distribution of resources are some of such issues and this situation is worst in CRC project region that have been further aggravated by COVID-19. Thus, recovery, regain and reconstruction require external inputs.

RATIONALE

Welfare oriented policies adapted by government has claimed an outstanding literacy rate amongst the young generation reporting 98%. For vertical mobility of any state, the most crucial factor is that the education system must produce human resources to match the market demand, locally and internationally.

As described in the annexures, World Bank has made certain recommendations to boost education in the stream of science, engineering technology, ICT, English etcetera and the government is also well convinced with the recommendations. It adapts, formulates policies and procedures but due to uneven distribution of resources, expected goals and outcomes are yet to realize.

Reviewing the data on (refer the annex - 06), it is vivid that there is reasonably a high volume of usage of internet, email, telephone and associated applications Sri Lanka that reflects Sri Lankan are keen to adapt latest technologies. Thus, we do have a conducive environment to implement this project.

  Further, since the government focuses more on Health, safety and reconstruction initiatives that affected by COVID- 19, this project will complement to ongoing government initiatives to boost education.

PROJECT SUSTAINABILITY

Project Steering Committee is the vehicle that drives the project in a sustainable manner. Project Management has been designed in such a manner to receive active participation from the relevant ministries, authorities and officials.

Being the focal Technical Strategic entity, Central Technical Hub (CTH)” of CRC will formulate result-oriented system to frequently receive updates regarding the performance of the project activities.

• Periodic progress review: PSC, chaired by authorized officer from ministry, will convene the meeting where active participation of desired officers, parties will be ensured.
• System for frequent updates: The Government owned Sri Lanka Telecom(SLT), is one of our main telecommunication partners for this project that has already agreed to offer free data package for all the smart Classrooms and it will enable the involved party to frequently update on progress and issues. This system will ensure smooth function and create synergy between the Central Technical Hub (CTH) and all units of Smart Classrooms.

OUR SOLUTION HAS BEEN EXPLAINED IN ABOVE SECTIONS IN DETAIL. OUR INNOVATIVE SOLUTION IS MAKING EQUAL ACCESS TO HIGH QUALITY EDUCATION THROUGH HIGHLY INTERACTIVE  FULLY DIGITALISED SYNCHRONOUS EDUCATION PLATFORM which is expected to be commissioned at selected number of remote schools in Sri Lanka. This also will consist of Interactive Mobile App which runs on any mobile & non-mobile devises such as smart phones,Tabs,Laptops,Desktops and Smart TV screens.

The population we hope to serve through this system is unlimited and there are no boundaries. The current 4 million student population in 10,000 schools including remote & non remote areas will be served. Also youths in universities and just after schools will be served through the system.

Because for the moment students all over Sri Lanka are receiving our service through the described system but due to Covid-19 impact, we are temporarily halted our operations and hope to resume with your support.

Ours is a 100% interactive digital education platform which can be fixed at any remote schools or private classroom, also our mobile app can connect any number of students with professional lecturers based in anywhere in Sri Lanka. This system is not being used by/at any schools who are lacking access to high quality education.

50,000

100,000

1,000,000

Number of app downloads and number of people who are connecting through our digital online interactive education platform

Only 05 full time volunteers are working on our solution.

All are highly qualified in the relevant field.

The sole objective of our entire team is to make our solution a unique.

We will make equal access to high quality education through our digital online education platform +interactive mobile app.

Like minded organisations and individuals.

As our solution is innovative and highly interactive.