ITU targets 33 schools in Sri Lanka with Connect a School

ITRealms:

The international Telecommunication Union (ITU) has selected Sri Lanka as one of the five countries for the ‘Connect a School, Connect a Community’ project, reports ITRealms.

It was also gathered by ITRealms that this follows the completion of a ‘Connect a school, Connect a Community’ project in Akuressa, the Telecommunications Regulatory Commission of Sri Lanka (TRCSL) initiated this project with ITU to extend the scope to cover 33 schools on the entire island.

ITRealms further gathered that this project was inaugurated Thursday with the opening of the Computer Laboratory of the Watareka Kanishta Vidyalaya (Primary School), in Homagama, Padukka, Colombo District, by the Sri Lanka Minister of Education Mr Bandula Gunawardena.

Attended by Mr Lalith Weeratunga, the Secretary to the President of Sri Lanka and Chairman of the TRCSL, and Ms Eun-Ju Kim, Director of the ITU Regional Office for Asia and the Pacific, along with participating school principals and officials of the Provincial Education Offices, the project would benefit over 8500 students in 33 schools located in areas of low Information and Communication Technology (ICT) development, while also educating children with special needs.

The main objective of the project, ITRealms learnt is to narrow the digital divide between rural and urban areas and provide digital opportunities to their communities.

“Transforming these schools into community ICT centres is expected to help marginalized and vulnerable groups, such as women, indigenous people, persons with disabilities and those living in rural, remote and underserved areas, and to empower them to contribute to their socio-economic development,” officials of ITU told ITRealms.

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