– The assistance of several organizations including UNICEF and Australian government to the government..

A learning package for grade 1 and 2 students that can be studied at home even without television or internet facilities has been introduced by the government of Australia, Unicef Sri Lanka, Save the Children, Room to Read and Child Fund Sri Lanka in collaboration with the Ministry of Education and the National Institute of Education

These learning materials have been prepared targeting the nearly sixty five hundred thousand students in grades 1 and 2 of primary education stage out of the total students population in Sri Lanka and by now these learning materials have been dispatched to provincial education departments.   

This learning package helps to the students in grades 1 and 2 to do the activities related to the subjects of Mother tongue, Mathematics and Environment in Sinhala and Tamil Media. The Ministry of education emphasizes that it is important and essential that the parents should direct and assist their children who are confined to their homes to use these learning materials.   

Steps have been taken to prepare these learning materials and provide them to the students in primary grades as a one step of the financial aid of 1.5 million Australian Dollars announced by the Australian government recently in order to propide opportunities for the children in this country to face the challenge of COVID 19 pandemic situation and to work positively.  

The meeting for accepting officially these printed learning materials which are scheduled to be distributed among the children to make the necessity of improving the educational activities of the students in Sri Lanka a reality, was held at the Ministry of Education yesterday (26) with the leadership of The Minister of Education, Sports and Youth Affairs. The minister stated at this occasion that the Ministry of Education has already implemented several measures including the television programs such as e-thaksalawa, Ratak Watina Pothak and Gurugedara Educational TV channel for the purpose of maintaining actively and continuously the education of school children who are confined to their homes in the wake of present challenging situation in the country.   

Several male and female personnel including Resident Coordinator of United Nations Hanaa Singer, Representative of the UNICEF Sri Lanka Institute Tim Sutton, Education Head of UNICEF Sri Lanka Takaho Fukami, Sri Lanka Director of Room to Read Institute Ms. Shewanthi Jayasooriya and National Director of Save the Children Institution Julian Chellappa participated in this occasion. And also several officers including the the Secretary of Education Mr.N.H.M. Chithrananda, Advisor to the Ministry Dr. Upali Sedara, Secretary of the State Ministry Mr. Ranjith Chandrasekara, and the Director General of the National Institute of Education Dr. Sunil Jayantha Nawarathna participated.