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| Sunday, 31 July 2005 |
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Junior Observer |  |
| News Business Features Editorial
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A little help from Singapore
Fourteen students from St. Andrew's Junior College, Singapore were in Sri Lanka recently to help with the reconstruction work of a tsunami-affected school in Galle. The group, accompanied by two teachers Ho J. Yen Louis and Wang Sui Lee, were here on an initiative co-ordinated by the Ministries of Education in Singapore and Sri Lanka. The project was initiated when Governor, Southern Province, Kingsley T. Wickramaratne met Singapore's Education Minister Tharan Shanmugaratnam in Galle and also in Singapore, and when the Government of Singapore undertook to build three schools in the Galle district and to set up a fully equipped medical centre. The students of St. Andrew's Junior College got together with the senior students of BTS Maha Vidyalaya in Dadalla, Galle to re-construct and paint the latter, which received damages in the tsunami. The Singaporean students were camped in the school premises with the local students, and managed to complete the reconstruction of the damaged school and the playground within four weeks. Governor Wickramaratne described this initiative as an ongoing project. A team of teachers and students from St. Andrew's Junior College will visit BTS Maha Vidyalaya again in September, for a training of trainers programme. Students and teachers from BTS Maha Vidyalaya will also get to visit the Singapore school, to study their curriculum and activities. ############ English Medium Camp - a grand success by Chanuka Mannapperuma and Thileni Wickramaratne
The English Medium Camp, organised recently by the Grade nine English medium students of Sangamittha College, Galle at the school auditorium, was a grand success. According to the teacher in charge of the English Medium Unit, Mrs. Sriyakanthi Senanayake, 158 children participated in this two-day camp. St.Thomas' College, Matara also took part in the camp as a guest school. Mrs. Senanayake explained, "the main objective of this camp was to give the students a stress-free education. "Children also liked this idea. They had many good competitions where they could show their talents." The camp consisted of 12 groups named Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, Pluto, Antares, Universe, Andromeda, Sirius and Satellite. Every group had a group leader and comprised 12 students.
The enthusiasm of the participating children was clearly visible, especially during the quiz competition when eager hands were raised, all over the auditorium. It was a day for them to enhance their language skills. When asked how they gather knowledge for their studies,the students said the school provided a good education and they read the Junior Observer as well. The programme comprised events such as oriental dances, band displays, songs, quiz competitions, a children's movie and discussions on computers and IT.
The school Principal Mrs. Muriel Enderaarachchi said, "we have 10 qualified English teachers. Our school introduced the English medium studies in 2003 and this is the first time we have organised a camp of this nature." She described the programme as a good opportunity for students to share and gather knowledge. She also said that those who are doing studies in the Sinhala Medium should also get an opportunity like this. ########### Cabinet approval for school development The Cabinet has granted approval to speed up the development of seven National and Navodya schools, so that children of public servants who receive transfers to far away areas can be admitted to these schools. The project would see the development of Ananda Balika Vidyalaya, St. Paul's Girls School and Thurstan College in Colombo, Labuduwa Siridhamma Vidyalaya and Vidyaloka Vidyalaya in Galle, and Girls High School and Kingswood College in Kandy. Accordingly, these schools will get additional classes from Grades 1 to 13 to admit children of officers coming on transfers. Constructing new buildings, renovating and painting classrooms and providing toilets and other sanitation facilities, name boards and boundary walls will be included in the programme. Provincial engineering units have also started developing the Navodya and National schools identified through Provincial Education Ministries since January.One hundred and forty out of 324 National schools and 100 out of 388 Navodya schools, one from each zone, have been identified for development between July and December this year under this scheme. |
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