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| Sunday, 21 March 2004 |
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Mahapola lottery to be re-launched The Mahapola Higher education scholarship Trust Fund (MTF)is planning to establish the Mahapola Education Park at Malambe, where different International universities would be established in the same complex. "At present we are negotiating with some international universities as we are interested in attracting universities from different disciplines," said Director General MTF, Shyamala perera. Most students can't afford studies abroad due to the high living costs, but when international universities are set up in the country students would get an opportunity to study at these universities while those who cannot afford the costs would be given scholarships. The MTF would re-launch the Mahapola lottery to widen the coverage of its scholarships and engage in other charitable educational, vocational and technical training activities in the country. Tracing the history of Mahapola, Ms Perera said that the Mahapola trade fair was started in 1980 to pass on the benefits of the open economy to the village. The first trade fair was held at Mount Lavinia and the second at Hiniduma. During that time, an average of 14 fairs were held per year. At one of the fairs, an MP told the late Minister Lalith Athulathmudali that children in rural areas abandoned higher education because they could not afford it. This led the minister launch the Mahapola Scholarship Fund in 1981. He also got the permission to start a lottery to fund the scholarship fund. A total of Rs 10 million was raised during the first year of inception. In the first year 100 scholarships were planned to be awarded but when the first lottery was sold to the late President, J.R. Jayawardena he said that the fund would be able to grant 500 scholarships but it was possible to grant only to 422. The capital is deposited in the bank and the scholarships are given with the interest accrued on the capital. Strict rules have been imposed on the trust so that the benefits are only given to the deserving. The following year, the number of scholarships awarded were increased to 1000 and, at present, about 7,000-8000 undergraduate were provided with scholarships per year and, with the re-launch of the lottery, scholarships would be provided for students pursuing higher education in vocational, technical and professional fields. |
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