JKF English Day enhances youth language skills

by Husna Inayathullah

The English Day competition conducted by the John Keells Foundation's English Language Scholarship Program was held for the 10th consecutive year at the Bishop's College Auditorium, Colombo recently.

John Keells Holdings Head of CSR, Nadija Tambiah

The Chief Guest was Chairperson Insurance Board of Sri Lanka Indrani Sugathadasa,.

The John Keells English Language Scholarship Program was launched in 2004 with the objective of enhancing English language skills of schoolchildren and youth from socially and economically disadvantaged backgrounds towards improving their opportunities for higher learning and sustainable employment.

Over the years, the program conducted through the Gateway Language Centres, has sponsored a range of scholarships including the internationally-recognised two-year Edexcel Diploma Program, 4-6 month courses for schoolchildren and school-leavers and customized programs designed to suit special groups such as the undergraduates of the University of Moratuwa Transportation and Logistics Degree Program and trackers of the Yala National Park, thereby empowering the lives of over 9500 people of various parts of the country as at March 31, 2014.

English for Teens

Since 2009, the focus has been 'English for Teens' - under which three different levels of four-month courses are on offer aimed at providing progressive English language training for school hildren.

The foundation-level course targets children aged between 12-14 years while students obtaining an honours pass are eligible for scholarships in the subsequent levels of pre intermediate and intermediate courses. In 2013/2014, a total of 1462 scholarships were on offer with an aggregate of 1387 school children completing the course with an 80 percent attendance.

The Foundation level course was conducted in 20 locations of 16 districts for 1219 children completing the course and 1155 children becoming eligible to sit for the final examination. Meanwhile, another 166 children completed the pre-intermediate course in 12 districts. Around 150 sat for the final examination and obtained honours or merit passes.

In 2013/14, the Foundation made a further addition to the advanced scholarship program, offering intermediate level scholarships to the students of the pre - intermediate level program of 2012/13 who received an honours pass. A total of 77 scholarships were awarded in six districts with 75 students maintaining the minimum 80% and completing the course.

A John Keells English Language scholar from Galle A. D. Medhavi said: The most important thing is that we could put away our fear of using English language. The other important thing is group work . When we participated in group work we could develop patience, cooperation and togetherness. Our teacher helped us where necessary and she gave us the freedom to think and to speak in the classroom."

A John Keells English Language scholar from Ampara K. D. Sachith Dilsankha said, "We can find a lot of tuition classes in our area but it is difficult to find an English course of good quality and international standard, where we can change ourselves and John Keells Foundation provided us with that opportunity. In remote areas such as Ampara we find it difficult to spend a lot of money on our studies as most of the students are from farming families.

Therefore, the John Keells Foundation is doing a meritorious service for students like me from poor families. Your service is remarkable."

John Keells Holdings PLC Chairman Susantha Ratnayake said the John Keells continues to recognize the importance of providing every child the opportunity to learn the English language to explore global sources of information and knowledge and pursue opportunities in the fields of leisure and hospitality, science and technology, communication and media. We have no doubt that, with the continuous use and enhancement of their communication skills in English, these youth will be in a better position to contribute to the development, progress and prosperity of our country.

Building bridges

I am also heartened by the presence of children from various parts of the country, enabling them to meet and interact and build bridges of friendship and goodwill".

As introduced in 2013, the performances were judged as a two-tiered competition: namely, district level performances based on which the ten best items have been selected and invited to perform at the English Day 2014. This year the competition was held in two categories - poetry and drama. The Matale, Colombo, Mullaitivu, Jaffna, Trincomalee, Ratnapura, Vavuniya, Negombo, Ampara and Galle branches were selected to perform at the English Day 2014 . Four of those branches performed dramatised poems and the other six branches performed dramas of 10 minutes each.

The performances at the John Keells English Day 2014 was judged by a panel of three distinguished personalities in the field of English theatre such as Mohamed Adamaly,*Attorney-at-Law of the Supreme Court, leading Theatre Producer, Director and actor and the founder partner of "The Performing Arts Company", *Ms. Sashi Mendis, *Associate of the Trinity College London in Performance was teacher of drama at Gateway College for nearly a decade and *Ms. Aroshie Jayasinghe,*the head of Gateway School of Speech and Drama and the head of the local wing of LAMDA Examinations - Sri Lanka. Nadija Tambia, Head of CSR John Keells Holdings PLC said, "We at John Keells believe that we have an important role in partnering the development and progress of Sri Lanka in the future.

Key to the success of Sri Lanka's future is the development and education of the next generation of Sri Lankans, specifically gearing them towards becoming productive individuals with skills suited to the needs of the future.

We believe that the cornerstone to becoming a productive individual focused on driving Sri Lanka into the future is knowledge of the English Language.

The John Keells Foundation which oversees the corporate social responsibility activities of the John Keells Group has many focus areas which promote our vision of "Empowering the Nation for Tomorrow" but our Education focus area is something that is close to the hearts of many within the group.

The John Keells English Language Scholarship Program is our flagship initiative. The performances included familiar favorites such as "Cinderella" by the Grimm Brothers, "King o' the Cats" by Aaron Shepard, "I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings" by Maya Angelou and "Plead Mercy /(sabbe sattha bhavanthu sukhi thattha)/By Anne Ranasinghe.

The winners of the John Keells English Day 2014 were students from the Trincomalee branch for drama and runners up were from the Colombo branch. The winner of the poetry category was from the Galle branch and the runner up was from the Negombo branch. The overall best performer was given to the character "Oscar" from the Ampara branch.