Dialog awards schols to 30 students

Dialog Axiata awarded merit scholarships to 30 students who excelled at the GCE Ordinary Level examination in 2012, and intend to continue their secondary education in the mathematics stream.

The scholarships were granted to the five students who scored top marks in O/L mathematics from all 25 districts and the five top all-island performers.

The certificates were handed over to the beneficiaries by Minister of Education, Hon. Bandula Gunawardena, at a ceremony held at the Devi Balika Vidyalaya in Colombo recently.

Speaking at the event Minister Gunawardena commended Dialog Axiata's focus and contribution to the advancement of the education sector in Sri Lanka, including Nenasa which has bridged the education gap to rural parts of the country.

"There are various initiatives launched by parties under the umbrella of Corporate Responsibility that don't contribute to sustainable child development activity.

My ministry is looking at introducing a programme to establish accepted benchmarks for all such activity focusing on schools and children. Dialog through programs such as Nenasa and Merit Scholarships have demonstrated their unrelenting commitment to the sector," the Minister remarked.

The Dialog Merit Scholarships programme has benefitted close to 600 students all over Sri Lanka during the past ten years, including its parallel programme which recognizes and rewards top performers at the G.C.E. Advanced Level examination, supporting them throughout their undergraduate studies.

The programme aims to empower outstanding students from all parts of the country to accomplish their educational aspirations, and the broader objective of enriching knowledge capital of our future generations.

The students are selected by the Ministry of Education and the University Grants Commission and are based on the results of each district. Scholarships have also been extended to differently-able students.

The 'Nenasa' distance education network is a gift from Dialog Axiata to the government of Sri Lanka and the Ministry of Education, broadcasting the national educational curriculum via satellite to 2,000 under-served schools all over Sri Lanka.