Ranil Wickremesinghe, President of Sri Lanka and H.E. Santosh Jha, High Commissioner of India to Sri Lanka handed over digital equipment to several schools in Southern Province at an event in Galle on 6 July 2024. The said event was attended by various dignitaries including Hon. (Dr.) Susil Premajayantha, Minister of Education and Hon. (Dr.) Ramesh Pathirana, Minister of Health.
These digital equipment were distributed under a grant assistance project by Government of India (GoI) for the establishment of 200 Smart Classrooms in Southern Province. The project aims at equipping 200 schools in the Province with necessary digital tools that would enable them to benefit from digital resources and materials across the globe.
Speaking on the occasion, President Ranil Wickremesinghe thanked GoI and Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi for the multi– pronged support to Sri Lanka in the education domain.
High Commissioner Santosh Jha underlined that India has witnessed major technological advancements in the education sphere in recent years. Further, GoI is committed to the benefits from such advancements to the students and teachers in Sri Lanka. He noted that GoI carries out several human-centric projects in Southern Province and specifically mentioned that more than 1300 houses are currently being constructed by GoI for homeless families in the three Districts of the Province.
Establishment of Smart Classrooms in Southern Province is being implemented under the bilateral High Impact Community Development Project framework. 18 grant projects cutting across sectors are being carried out under this framework in all the 25 Districts of Sri Lanka. The value of these projects stand at around SLR 5.5 billion.
