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| Sunday, 5 February 2006 |
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Junior Observer |  |
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World Bank aid to develop education The Finance and Planning Ministry recently entered into an agreement with the World Bank to receive loans and assistance to develop Sri Lanka's education sector and road network. Accordingly, the World Bank will provide Rs. 16 billion for these projects. The package includes a 60 million US dollar grant for the education sector and 100 million US dollars credit for the road sector. This assistance represents the largest grant and the largest investment credit the World Bank has given to Sri Lanka. The grant for education sector development will support the Government's education programmes during the next five years, from 2006 to 2010, at the rate of Rs. 1,200 million per year. It will cover grades 1 to 13. It aims to promote equitable access to basic and secondary education by providing incentives for school attendance, expanding and upgrading the school network, strengthening education programmes for children with special learning needs, and non-formal education programmes for adolescents, improving the quality of education through the development of the curriculum, enhancing teacher motivation, skills and performance, modernising examinations and testing and enhancing the efficiency and equity of resource allocation and distribution within the education system. It will fund the Government's objective of extending the compulsory education period from grade one to nine, and developing high quality schools island-wide. New author on the horizon We have featured many budding authors in the pages of the Junior Observer. The latest such author on the horizon is Gimhani Upeksha Waduge, a 10-year-old student of Carmel Central College, Chilaw. Gimhani's maiden creation 'The Three Little Girls and Their Pets' is about seven-year-old twins Anne and Belinda, and their 10-year-old sister Jane, and the rabbits they kept at home as pets. The book was created as a class project, under the instructions of her teacher, Boniface Fernando. The colourful illustrations in the book were done by H.C. Ratnayake, while the computer designing and printing were carried out by C&R Creations of Chilaw. Warusavithana Laboratories of Chilaw was the publisher. In the book, Gimhani thanks her school principals (both at Carmel Central and St. Mary's Primary Girls School, Chilaw), teachers, her parents and grandparents, for helping and encouraging her in all her endeavours. She especially thanks her grandmother, who created an interest in her mind for reading, thereby opening a new world to her. This has also resulted in the blossoming of the writing habit in the young girl. An avid reader, she encourages all other youngsters to take up the reading habit, which, she said, will help widen their horizons. Music, painting and observing nature are also among her hobbies. Art for a noble cause Two 10-year-old artists will hold a public exhibition and sale of their paintings and art work, with a noble cause in mind. The two artists are Sahani Welikala, a Grade 6 student of Ladies College, Colombo, and Sakina Lokhandwala, a Grade 5 student of Asian International School, Colombo. Both are students of the Lathifa Ismail School of Art. The exhibition and sale of their work will be held at the Lionel Wendt Art Gallery, on February 10 and 11. The opening ceremony will commence at 6.00 pm on the 10th; the exhibition will be open throughout the day on the 11th. While Sahani has done about 50 oils and sketches, water colours and acrylic pastel paintings, Sakina has produced about 60 paintings for the exhibition. A special picture at the event will be Fishing boats', which has been collectively painted by the two artists, and which will be auctioned at the event. Proceeds from the sale of paintings will go towards the completion of the HOPE Cancer Hospital for Children. Sahani, together with nine other students of the art school, held a similar exhibition and sale in October 2002, and managed to donate Rs. 218,500 to the HOPE project. Sahani, who has been painting for the last five years, is also interested in swimming, athletics and piano music, and is a Little Friend too. Sakina's interests include oriental dancing, swimming, singing and
basketball. Both of them took about a year to complete their work for the
exhibition.
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