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| Sunday, 30 May 2004 |
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IT is worth it The call went out to the Ministry of Education and Higher Education to provide Rs 100 million per year towards acquainting schoolgoers with Information Technology (IT). The proposer, Prof Sam Karuneratne, Chairman, Sri Lanka Institute of Information Technology (SLIIT) said that the sum "is nothing much" as the funds for the purpose could be obtained from the World Bank. Prof Karuneratne said that SLIIT is the leading IT training institute in Sri Lanka, considering the numbers, being trained. He was speaking at the inauguration of a programme to teach IT to 200 non-graduate teachers from Colombo, Kandy and Kamburupitiya. These teachers would undergo a year-long course of study called the Teachers' Diploma in Information Technology to be conducted during weekends. On completion, the 200 teachers would in a year, acquaint 6000 students of their respective schools, in IT. This World Bank backed project is coordinated by the Ministry of Education and Higher Education. The facilitator of this first programme of teaching teachers, is SLIIT which is based in Malabe and has the highest intake of IT undergraduates per year, which amounts to approximately 1000 students. Currently, SLIIT runs four campuses in Colombo, Malabe, Kandy and Kamburupitiya, offering degrees in IT, IS and Networking with a total student population of 3500. Prof Karuneratne said that his organisation was carrying out the programme of teaching teachers, at zero cost as a national service. More teachers would be trained, and IT would be taken to the school student population. The economics of using IT for the first time, for the recently concluded Indian elections "was tremendous" Prof Karuneratne explained. Otherwise, at least 6,500 tonnes of paper would have had to be used, destroying trees, and the environment. The results of the elections were released within three hours, having a "tremendous affect on the population of the country." Prof Karuneratne said that the de-emphasis on English in Sri Lanka led to the nation losing its advantage of science and technology, over the region. Fifty-years later, there is an emphasis on English, which does not mean de-emphasising Sinhala or Tamil. IT is necessary for e-government e-commerce and the other IT related fields, Prof Karuneratne said. SLIIT's managing director Prof Lalith Gamage said that IT had many applications, and large programmes were being formulated to teach IT to the army personnel. Hansard could be available at the end of the day's proceedings in Parliament, in all three languages, if IT is used, Prof Gamage said. Caption: Sri Lanka Institute of Information Technology, Malabe. (EL) |
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