Preschools to be monitored by the
State
by Ananda KANNANGARA
The
character-moulding of the younger generation from their early stages is
a bounden duty of teachers, parents as well as the Government and
therefore the administration of preschools should come under the purview
of the Education Ministry, Education Minister Bandula Gunawardena said,
recently.
Speaking to the Junior Observer, Minister Gunawardena highlighted
that the entire education of children in the country is in the hands of
the Government and said that matters related to preschool child
development in the country has currently been entrusted to the Child
Development and Women's Empowerment Ministry.
He said relevant proposals to taking over preschool education under
the Education Ministry has also been included in the new Education Act.
He also welcomed everybody, including parents, teachers and elderly
citizens to forward their proposals and views to make this proposal a
success. The Minister also said preschool teachers must be permanent in
their posts and formulate a formal salary structure for them,
considering the invaluable services they rendered towards the
development of the children's knowledge.
Minister Gunawardena said that steps have also been taken to develop
the children's education in the Northern District and under this
programme his Ministry plans to develop both schools as well as
preschools in the entire Northern District.
Participate and bring pride to Lanka:
Kanagawa Children's Art Competition
The United Nations Association of Sri Lanka invites children between
4-15 to participate at the Kanagawa International Art Competition which
will be held in July 2011 in Japan for the sixteenth time.
President Kanagawa Sub-Committee, Dharmadasa Vitharana said that Sri
Lankan students have won many silver, gold and even first place awards
at this competition in previous years.
Students can use colours as they wish under any topic and submit
their creations. Each student can submit only one creation and the size
should be below 54x38 cm. The name of the artist, school and the topic,
date of birth, age, gender and private address should be written on the
back of the creation in block capital letters. It should be certified by
the principal of the school.
All creations should be sent to the Secretary, Kanagawa Sub Committee
UNA Sri Lanka, 391 Cyril Janz Mawatha, Panadura before October 15. The
name of the event 16th Kanagawa Childrens Art Competition 2010/11, must
be mentioned on the left hand corner of the envelope, clearly.
PUC guidelines on best safety
practices
by Rohana JAYALAL
The Public Utilities Commission (PUC) in collaboration with the
Education Ministry has introduced guidelines for the best safety
practices programme for schoolchildren islandwide to prevent accidents
due to electric shock in school, Director General Damitha Kumarasinghe
told Junior Observer. According to the CPU, the awareness programmes on
the use of electricity safely will be conducted by the PUC jointly with
the Education Ministry for school heads, sectional heads, class teachers
and students at the initial stages.
According to a survey conducted by the PUC over 90 per cent of
schools among nearly 6,000 of 1-AB, AB and C grade are unsafe for
students.
Kumarasinghe said,the PUC would appoint nine power consumer
consultancy members from each province aimed at safeguarding consumer
rights representing the interest of power consumers directly to the PUC.
After becoming the economic safety and technical regulator of the
electricity industry through the enactment of Sri Lanka Electricity Act
No. 35 of 2009, the PUC entered the school sector to regulate certain
factors,especially concerned with students safety, Kumarasinghe said.
The PUC was set up under Act No. 35 of 2002 as a multi-industry
regulator to regulate certain public utilities industries in the
country. It came into operation in mid 2003.
Initially, the PUC Act provided for the regulation of the water
service and the electricity industries. The petroleum industries were
also added to the list of industries.
Learn in a different way during the
vacation
Fourth programme will commence
shortly.
The fourth Kent Ridge Junior+ developing future leaders personality
development programme for children between 9-16 years based on outdoor
activities will be held during the school vacation on Saturday August 28
at Jana Kala Kendraya, Battaramulla.
Aerobics, simulations and games, visualisation activities and sharing
of stories by role models will be some of the activities in the
programme. It will be conducted by a group of experts in Outbound
training directed by Janaka Kumarasinghe.The key learning objectives
would focus on togetherness, taking leadership, developing positive
attitudes making children lose their shyness, discovering hidden
talents, managing time, being creative and taking independent decision.
The Junior Observer is the Print Media Partner while Protinex-Life will
stimulate the programmed by being the strategic partner.
Await an article and the registration coupon in the next issue
(August 22)
For more details of the programme contact Vindya on 011-2805155 or
Jagath on 071-9000008. Also for details please visit the website
www.kent ridge.lk or e-mail on [email protected]. |