Development of 1000 secondary schools within four years

by Ananda KANNANGARA

The Government's proposed plan to develop 1000 secondary schools will commence shortly after completing the ongoing Scientific Mapping Exercise (SME) in all rural and remote schools that are located in every part of the country, Education Minister Bandula Gunawardane said.

According to the School Development Division of the Ministry of Education, out of over 9800 Government schools, a majority have already been provided with basic facilities for the benefit of children. Minister Gunawardane told the Junior Observer that this proposed 1000 secondary school development programme is a very successful educational project and it will be completed within a period of four years commencing this year.

The Minister further said the Government's main objective is to provide an excellent education to the 4.2 million schoolchildren by giving them a better knowledge of English, Science, Maths and Information Technology.

He said after completing this proposed SME project, children will be able to improve their knowledge on these job oriented subjects.

The Minister also said that most parents prefer to admit their children to popular schools which have all educational facilities such as science and computer laboratories, adequate teachers and other facilities to engage in extra curricular activities.

He said the SME project will help children to remain in the same schools without having to go to other schools, as under this programme all the schools will be equipped with modern educational equipment and will also be provided with specialised trained teachers.

Massive loss of ice from the world's glaciers

For the first time scientists have studied the mass loss of water from all of the Earth's glaciers and ice caps .Using a unique pair of satellites that have monitored the disappearing ice over the entire surface of the globe, scientists estimated that some 1,000 cubic miles of ice has disappeared between 2003 and 2010 , enough to cover the US in one-and-a-half feet of water.

Data gathered by the Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment (GRACE), a joint satellite project run by NASA and the German government, also found that the amount of ice melting from the mountain glaciers and ice caps that were not in Greenland or Antarctica was actually significantly smaller than previous estimates had suggested.

"The Earth is losing an incredible amount of ice to the oceans annually, and these new results will help us to answer important questions in terms of both sea-level rise and how the planet's cold regions are responding to global change."" said John Wahr, professor of physics at the University of Colorado at Boulder, who was part of the research team that analysed the satellite data.

Professor Jonathan Bamber, of Bristol University, said: "Melting glaciers are an iconic symbol of climate change... they seem to have been receding, largely uninterrupted, almost everywhere around the world for several decades."

Courtesy: Independent

[News in BRIEF]

by Rohana JAYALAL

Six universities upgraded to international standards

The Government's efforts to improve higher education has paid off with six universities in the country being ranked among the top 100 universities in South Asia.

According to the Secretary to the Ministry of Higher Education, Dr. Sunil Jayantha Navaratne under the international grading of universities, six universities of Sri Lanka have been upgraded.They are Colombo, Peradeniya, Sri Jayewardenepura, Jaffna, Rajarata and the Open University.However, the Ruhunu, Sabaragamuwa and Moratuwa universities have suffered a setback.

The Top 100 in South Asia in the 2012 Ranking Web of World Universities placed Colombo University in the top at 8th place and ranked Peradeniya University at 23rd followed by University of Moratuwa at 50th, University of Sri Jayewardenepura at 61st and University of Kelaniya at 98th. Jaffna, Rajarata and the Open University were not among the top 100. The Secretary said it is the objective of the Higher Education Ministry to upgrade local universities to international standards by next year and the President has allocated 600 million rupees for that purpose.

Hygienically made koththu roti

Health authorities of the Colombo Municipal Council have taken steps to train the cooks who prepare the famous fast food koththu roti to do their task hygienically to avoid food poisoning.

The Chief Medical Officer Dr. Pradep Kariyawasam said that this new initiative will come into effect from March and under the first phase, 300 koththu roti cooks will be trained. The koththu makers will receive a certificate upon completion of their training.The Municipal Council will also provide uniforms to the trained koththu cooks.

Gates to be installed at unprotected railway crossings

The Railway Department has allocated a billion rupees to install gates at all the unprotected rail crossings in the country .

General Manager of Sri Lanka Railways, B.A.P. Ariyaratne has said that preliminary measures have been taken to install 200 gates across the island.

The government says 612 rail crossings out of a total of about 915 in the country have no protection systems. Last year the Cabinet of Ministers approved the allocation of one billion rupees to provide protection systems to 200 unprotected railway level crossings.

Priority will be given to install gates along the Southern coastal line due to the high speed of trains on the track following its recent modernization.

The railway officials have pointed out that the lack of protective gates at crossings is a hindrance to the proper operation of the trains as well as a safety hazard to the public.

National heritage to be taught at school

Minister of National Heritage,Jagath Balasuriya says steps will be taken to include national heritage as part of a subject in school .

The Minister stated that he intends to add the subject on national heritage to either Social Studies or History subjects and added that discussions were held with the Ministry of Education and the National Education Service in this regard.

The subject will be taught up to the G.C.E. Advanced Level Examination.