Grade One admissions:

Some schools have no applicants

by Ananda KANNANGARA

According to Education Department statistics 124 schools have not received a single application for Grade One classes this year, while 25 per cent schools out of the 9,675 schools in the country have received less than 10 applications for Grade one classes. It has also been revealed that 16 per cent schools have less than 50 students in each school.

Minister of Education Bandula Gunawardana told the Junior Observer that a low percentage of students attendance is reported from these schools due to the dearth of specialised and trained teachers, lack of IT and science laboratory facilities and sports facilities.

He said the attitude of some parents that their children must receive an education only in reputed schools that have a large percentage of students, has also been a contributory factor to this decline in numbers.

"However, except for a few schools, 90 per cent schools in the country are equipped with many facilities including Information Technology (IT), science laboratory and library facilities," the Minister said.

He assured that under a special programme initiated by the Government all schools in the country will soon be equipped with modern IT and computer centres, science laboratories and language centres for students to learn many other foreign languages in addition to the English language.

"Schools that lack sports facilities will also be provided with sports grounds, swimming pools and sports gear in the next few months, so that parents would not hesitate to admit their children to any school in the future," he said.

Dramatic solar flare observed

An unusual solar flare observed by a NASA space observatory on June 7.

The potent blast from the Sun unleashed a firestorm of radiation on a level not witnessed since 2006, according to the National Weather Service."

The large cloud of particles mushroomed up and fell back down looking as if it covered an area of almost half the solar surface," said a NASA statement.

The space weather analysts were watching closely to see whether the event would cause any collision of magnetic fields between the Sun and Earth, some 93 million miles (150 million kilometres) apart.

"Part of our job here is to monitor and determine whether it is Earth-directed because essentially that material that is blasting out is gas with magnetic field combined,"said analysists. -AFP

Today is Father's Day

Every third Sunday in June is dedicated as a special day to pay tribute to fathers the world over. You too can make this day special for your fathers who often take a backseat in your lives due to the special attention and numerous tributes paid to mothers Be on the lookout for a special tribute to Fathers in our next issue.

Kokavil Transmission Tower:

Tallest tower in South East Asia

by Rohana JAYALAL

The Kokavil Multifunctional Transmission Centre and Tower which was commissioned by President Mahinda Rajapaksa recently is an important milestone on the road to making Sri Lanka an Asian Information Network hub.

The 175-metre tower was constructed at a cost of Rs. 450 million.

The tower will begin digital transmission covering the entire Northern Province of the island.

The tall tower which is situated at Kokavil, the centre point between Jaffna and Vavuniya, is Sri Lanka's first ever multi-channel broadcasting tower to be allocated for the providers of high speed internet, radio, television, and telecommunication transmission services, as well as military communication operations.

The funds for the project were provided by the Telecommunication Regulatory Commission (TRC), Sri Lanka Rupavahini Corporation, the Sri Lanka Broadcasting Corporation and the Independent Television Network (ITN). The Sri Lankan Army gave tremendous support to make the project a success.

The new Kokavil tower will be used to introduce digital radio and television transmission using the Digital Video Broadcasting, DVB-T2 digital terrestrial broadcasting standards which will help to provide high quality and clear television, radio and telecommunication coverage for the entire Northern Province without transmission interruptions, after several decades.

The Sri Lanka Broadcasting Corporation, Sri Lanka Rupavahini Corporation and the Independent Television Network commenced test transmissions last April.

However, TRC hopes to provide space for several private media and telecommunication channels, especially Tamil channel transmission space through this tower.

The Kokavil Rupavahini transmission tower which was first constructed in 1982 to facilitate the people in the North to view television broadcast clearly, but it was destroyed by Tamil Tiger terrorists on July 11, 1990. However once again such a tower proudly stands, and it is considered the tallest ever transmission tower in the entire South East Asia region.