Strengthening bonds between Northern and Southern schools

by Ananda KANNANGARA

The importance of conducting educationally valued extracurricular activity programmes between students of Southern and Northern schools was highlighted by the Education Minister, Bandula Gunawardene recently.

The Minister said that in addition to normal educational activities, students must also indulge in extra-curricular and co-curricular activities with students of different ethnic groups, since it is vital to build a free and peaceful society.

Minister Gunawardene told the Junior Observer that such type of programmes were conducted between the Northern and Southern schools sometime ago, and it is necessary to recommence this type of programmes, especially with the dawn of peace in the country.

"It is our duty to encourage not only schoolchildren, but also elders to indulge in various group activities between different ethnic groups, since it could further strengthen the gap between them,".

He said such group activities will also help schoolchildren to overcome the language barriers and improve regular educational activities.He said under this programme, school teachers have to play a major role and focus more attention on conducting sports events, debating programmes and dramas between schools in the North and the South.

The Minister also recalled the days when sports teams from the Southern and Northern provinces visited each other regularly and played friendly matches in Colombo, Jaffna and other major cities.He said the country's prevailing peaceful environment has also given Southern schoolchildren and other youngsters an opportunity to visit old historical places in the North and to see the biodiversity which will also help to carry out future educational activities.

The Minister also invited children in Northern schools to visit the South and strengthen ties between them.

Nallur festival is on

The annual festival of the historic Nallur Hindu Temple in Jaffna commenced amidst thousands of devotees reciting Haro Hara.

This is the biggest religious event in the Northern Province that will last for 25 days. The festival will culminate in Nallur Kovil Poonkavanam on September 9.

The highlight of the festival is the Ther Chariot festival which will be held on September 8. Thousands of devotees from all corners of the country and overseas are expected on this day.

A strict dress code is imposed for the devotees visiting the Nallur Hindu Temple.

Kurunegala District Oratorical Contest:

Closing date extended

The closing date of the Oratorical Contest organised by the Dharma Sri Mahindanandodaya English Dhamma School has been extended to September 12 following a request by the applicants. It was earlier scheduled to close in August.

Organisers say that while all conditions stated before still applies (see Junior Observer of June 18), only the closing date of applications and the date the contest will be held have been changed.

Accordingly, the date of the contest will be announced after processing the applications.

With love from America ...

A million books for you!

With World Literacy Day round the corner it is heartening to note that a Sri Lankan now domiciled in the United States of America has taken the initiative to channel valuable reading material to his motherland.

At a time when the spiralling cost of books has become a stumbling block to many a book collector, and the reading habit among the younger generation is on the wane, the availability of good reading material, at least in school libraries, would go a long way to attract schoolchildren to take to reading.Sanjeewa Sedere who is the President of the Asian-American Democratic Caucus in Las Vegas, has designed a project to channel books discarded from schools in the US to schoolchidlren in Sri Lanka.

Reading material in school libraries in the States is replaced with new books annually and the old books are discarded.Under the project initiated by Sedere, about a million such discarded books from 15 school libraries will be distributed among school libraries here via the Thalapathpitiya Lions Club.Sedere hopes to carry out this project annually. Pictures show Asian volunteers packing the books (right) and Sedere with the valuable packages of books ready to be sent to Sri Lanka.( left)