ICT Education

ICT Education in Sri Lanka

ICT in the Sri Lankan School System

This is a a brief account of ICT in the Sri Lankan school curriculum. Writer is a pioneer in introducing ICT for the school system of Sri Lanka. He has an international exposure and has done a lot of research on ICT in the field of education.

Feel free to read through the document and get a first hand knowledge in what is happening in the school system with relation to Information and Communication Technology.

ICT was introduced to Sri Lankan schools in 1982.

As a pilot project, 2 Computers were given to a school. At that time programming was the main subject taught with computers.

This bored a majority of students and teachers specially who did not like mathematics.

Number of computers given to a school was not sufficient. To be confident with computers a lot of handson experience is essential. There was a need for more computers and a curriculum that was appealing to students and teachers

Computer Resource Centres (CRCs)

A major decision was taken in 1994 to put up Computer Resource Centres(CRCs) islandwide. These centres were located in a school but the students of schools neighbouring the centre could make use of these. CRCs were mainly targeted to conduct training on the use of computers to students who have sat for GCE(OL)/AL and await results. Two exams namely NCCA(Basic) and NCCA(Intermediate) were conducted by the Examination Department.

But now many schools have computer laboratories mostly given by projects funded by the ADB and World Bank. Lot of teachers has been trained to use computers. Computers are used to facilitate the teaching learning process.

A subject called ICT for GCE(OL) has emerged from 2007. Students can offer this subject at the GCE(OL) as a technical subject.

What are CRCs

CRCs are the Computer Resource Centres through which ICT in the school system is implemented. Teachers are trained, Software is developed, materials are distributed through these centres. There are 76 CRCs island wide. These are normally located in the premises of school.