Twinning project, a boon to Lankan students

by Sarath Malalasekera

A pioneering student twinning project is helping young people in Sri Lanka to acquire Information Communication Technology (ICT) skills and proficiency in English.

The Stichting ICT Education Centre Sri Lanka project is using the expertise of Dutch Networking Academy students to provide training and support to students in Sri Lanka.

While the Lankan students acquire valuable skills and IT qualifications, their Dutch counterparts gain work and life experience in a different part of the world.

The "Stichting Education Centre Sri Lanka," project is run by Arie van Duijn assisted by his wife Tineke in collaboration with the City of Velsen. The City of Velsen was twinned with the City of Galle for the past two years, said Netherlands Alumni Association Lanka (NAAL) President S. P. C. Kumarasinghe who accompanied Arie and Tineke in Colombo.

Arie was the project director of NOVA College Haarlem and at present is the Regional Manager for the CISCO Networking Company.

Dutch Project Manager Arie developed the project after the City of Velsen in the Netherlands donated computers, software and internet connections to schools in the Galle region in 2002. To install and maintain these computers at the schools, a partnership was setup between the Nova College in Velsen and the Vocational Training Authority (VTA) in Sri Lanka.

Teachers from the NTA get training in IT Essentials and CCNA 1 and 2. An ICT training centre, including a CCNA lab environment, was setup in Galle by students and teachers from The Netherlands and Sri Lanka. Project Manager, Arie said that the objective in setting up the centre is to make it a Networking Academy in the near future.

In the aftermath of the devastating Tsunami in December 2004 more aid money became available and the project was expanded to other schools in the South of the country, the project manager said.

"When you do not support computers there is no use in sending them," said Arie van Duijn. "Hence we decided to set up ICT training centres. We realised the need for professionalism so we set up a commercial organisation, using students as the workforce," Arie van Duijn said.

As part of the ensuing exchange program, volunteer students from academies in Holland travel to Sri Lanka for three weeks where they are twinned with Sinhalese ICT students.

Around 120 students have travelled to the country, with 10 groups comprising six students due to visit in 2007 for ten months. The program is sponsored and supported by several organisations, such as NCDO (Teacher Training Program), Plan Nederland (Twinning program), private sponsors, teachers and students from ROC's and HBO's and Stichting ICT Education Centres Sri Lanka, Netherlands Alumini Association Lanka, President S. P. C. Kumarasinghe said.