Ceylinco Sussex publishes text books for English medium

Excerpts from the interview with K. A. S. Jayatissa, Deputy Chairman, Ceylinco Educational and Financial Services Group on the release of English medium text books for the national curriculum by Ceylinco Sussex Educational Services.

Question - Would you explain the circumstances which influenced you to commence the Ceylinco Sussex Colleges and the progress made so far?

Answer - Our Chairman Dr. Lalith Kotelawala, a great humanist had a vision to take the English medium education to distant villages to give these children an opportunity to study in the English medium and brighten their future and also to eradicate poverty and uplift the standard of living in these remote villages. I was able to fulfill the vision of our Chairman by opening the first two schools in January 2004.

At present our school network is spread over eight provinces covering 15 districts.

Our schools are open to any student irrespective of one’s ethnicity, gender or creed.

Our aim is to promote harmony and build trust and confidence among our people.

We follow the national curriculum and conduct classes from play group to Advanced Level. Our school is the first school to receive ISO 9001:2000 certification and has also won several Productivity Awards during the last few years. We have also commenced the first professionally designed school for children with Autism.

Question - What factors influenced you to publish your own textbooks?

Answer - Yes, the first problem we faced was the non-availability of textbooks in English. We have now completely overcome this problem by producing quality and standard textbooks almost for all the subjects. For this purpose we obtained the services of highly competent and experienced educationists.

Question - Would you comment on special features of your schools?

Answer - We teach foreign languages such as French, Italian from grade 3 and above.

Computer studies is a subject taught from grade 1 and moulding our children to face the global changes in technology. We give equal importance to Aesthetic studies too. We encourage inter and intra school competitions relating to Dancing, Music and Art. Sports is another important area in our school network.

Question - How is the academic performance of your students monitored?

Answer - This is a very important area. The achievement of students is monitored and assessed by a Common Examination conducted termly by our Central Examination Unit. All question papers from grade 3 and above are set by this unit and examinations are conducted under strict examination conditions. Answer scripts are corrected by the unit.

Question - Would you comment on any initiatives taken to upgrade the quality of teaching?

Answer - Seminars and workshops are conducted regularly by professionals in the relevant fields to ensure continuous in-service training of teachers, updating their knowledge and familiarising them with the new educational reforms of the Government.

Another challenge we faced is the lack of qualified and trained teachers. This problem too we have overcome by establishing our own Teacher Training College, which fulfils the needs of not only our schools but also other private schools in the country.

Question - What distinct advantages will your children have over the others in pursuing higher education?

Answer - Yes of course, our children will be eligible to get admitted not only to Sri Lankan Universities, but also to most of the foreign Universities if they so desire as well as to Professional Institutions such as the Sri Lanka Law College, Institute of Chemistry, Institute of Architects, ICASL, CIMA, CACA with much ease as their courses are conducted in English.

Question - Do you expect the Government to get involved in the Private or so called International Schools?

Answer - My frank opinion is that the Government too should get involved in this process. It must have a sincere dialogue with the parties and come to a consensus.

This is good for all specially children of our country who are studying in these schools as we have taken the responsibility of producing disciplined, patriotic, employable men and women to bring glory to our country.