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| Sunday, 19 February 2006 |
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Junior Observer |  |
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School Twinning Project to improve English Arrangements are currently being made to set up the School Twinning Project in Sri Lanka and the Netherlands, with the intention of improving the knowledge of English among students of both countries.
Coordinator, School Twinning Project, Tineke van Duijn and her husband Arie van Duijn were in Sri Lanka recently, making arrangements for this programme, called Cooperation between Elementary Schools in the Netherlands and Sri Lanka. Van Duijn said they intend to initiate contacts and cooperation between Dutch and Sri Lankan primary schools "to stimulate the usage of English". They will also provide schools in Sri Lanka with computers, so that communication can be established with the Dutch schools through the internet. "The only way to communicate with children or teachers in another country is by using a common medium (English)," she said. Seven schools have been selected from each country for the implementation of the Twinning English Teaching Project. The seven Sri Lankan schools are from Galle. They are Rippon Balika Vidyalaya (90 students), Mahinda College (80 students), Southlands College (50 students), Olcott Maha Vidyalaya (44 students), Piyatissa College (50 students), Sanghamitta Balika Vidyalaya (20 students) and Ihalagoda Sumangala Model School (50 students). The seven schools selected from the Netherlands are de Windroos (75 students), St. Franciscus School (50 students), Jan Campert School (55 students), Brederode Dalton School (44 students), Parnassia (55 students), de Vuurtoe (20 students) and de Triangel (50 students). National Year of Children The year 2006 has been designated as the National Year of Children by the Government. The special Year, under the theme 'A Caring Hand Through Childhood's Land', was launched at the BMICH recently. The National Policy on Early Childhood Development was also launched on this occasion.
President Mahinda Rajapakse, who inaugurated the Year, said that the problems of children will be taken up by the Government during this year, with a new approach and new attitudes. He added that they are hoping to work towards finding solutions to a range of problems which children are facing today. These include the problem of child soldiers, street children, children in the domestic service, as well as the children affected and displaced by the war and the tsunami. The President further said that his aim was to ensure that all children receive the benefits of these projects on an equal basis, no matter which race or religion they belong to, or which part of the country they come from. The Government had also set up a separate ministry for children, as it had realised the importance of dealing with the problems and issues faced by children. Accordingly, the Child Development Ministry, with the assistance of other ministries, will take steps to introduce special children's programmes on health education, moral development and child protection. President Rajapakse called on the Ministry to take steps to establish a Children's Parliament, Children's Municipal Councils and Pradeshiya Sabhas, through which the voice of the children will be heard. He also expressed hopes of meeting the children soon, and obtaining their views on the functioning of the institutions, programmes and activities that have been established for their welfare. Strengthening the school bus service The Railways, Transport, Petroleum and Petroleum Resources Ministry plans to streamline and strengthen the school bus service, to bring it on par with the service offered during the CTB's golden era. This is expected to give further meaning to the declaration of 2006 as the National Year of Children. The programme will see the revival of school bus services which had been terminated in the past, and the introduction of new services in keeping with current needs. Buses deployed for school services would be released for normal services during other times of the day, the Ministry said in a news release. The first new school bus service under this programme was launched by Minister A.H.M. Fowzie at a recent ceremony. Personality development workshop for children Many children are expected to take part in the workshop titled 'Brave World', which will be held at the Taj Samudra Hotel, Colombo, on February 26. It is aimed at children between the ages of 10 and 14. A workshop on the same theme was held yesterday for 15-18 year olds, while another one was held in January, where 24 leading schools from Colombo took part. The workshops are focused on vision, passion and personality development for children. They are aimed at inculcating a vision for the future, developing self-esteem, creating the passion for success and positive attitudes in the minds of children. Participants will experience effective leadership and teamwork skills, communication and presentation skills, innovation, creativity and thinking. The workshops are totally interactive with plenty of games, activities, films and presentations. The programme will be presented by the well-known corporate trainer, Gihan Talgodapitiya. Dutch Minister visits reconstructed school The importance of investing on good education and the well-being of children was emphasised by the Netherlands Minister of Education, Culture and Science, Van der Hoeven, who was on a visit to Sri Lanka recently. During her visit, the Minister visited the Sirisumana Junior School in Rathgama, to support the educational endeavours in areas affected by the tsunami. The Sirisumana school was reconstructed under a UNICEF school reconstruction project. Schoolchildren in the Netherlands had contributed 1.8 million euro to UNICEF funds, to reconstruct schools for tsunami-affected children in Sri Lanka and Indonesia. This project was initiated by a Dutch broadcasting channel for primary
schools, of which a crew accompanied the Minister during her trip. |
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