Ola Leaf to Computer - A journey of knowledge transfer

It was a full moon day in month of June B.C 306; King Dewanampiyathissa & his crew or band of followers was enjoying hunting. The day was a most remarkable day, in the annals of Buddhist civilization. The King was engrossed in the hunt when he heard his name being called, twice. “Tissa Tissa”. Arahat Mahinda, the illustrious apostle of Buddhism raised his aryan esteemed voice. The king stopped in his tracks and paid heed to the call of Arahat Mahinda. It was in this manner that Buddhism was brought to Sri Lanka. Buddhism brought along with it t a distinctive civilization and cultural pattern to the social and religious life of the community. The Temple became central to the community – it was place of religious worship as well as the seat of learning. . The agricultural society that was prevalen in Sri Lanka in those days was moulded according to Buddhism and its teachings.

After having freedom from English crown, the formal education system of the country identified the need of creating a Trustworthy, Respected, Responsible society inculcating the values of the Buddhist way of life. The teaching of Buddhism as a subject was introduced to Scholl Curriculum and the Daham School (Sunday school) was started to be facilitated by the government.

In another chapter in the annals of the history of the country the the ICT Agency of Sri Lanka launched the “Nenasala”, Sri Lanka Telecentre programme as a means of reaching out to the far flung rural communities.. Trhought the Nenasala network communities, right from the grass roots level are being empowered to use Information and communication technology in their day to day life.


Thanamalvila is a very remote location in rural Sri Lanka. It is also on one of the driest areas. Kandiyapitawewa is located 12 kilometers away from the Thanamalvila & the livelihood of the villagers in this area is based on paddy farming. Though the “Nenasala” , Kandiyapita village has been equipped with Information Communication Technology; Computer, Internet, Fax, Telephone and so on. Eranda Sampath, owner of the nenasala is a a young man nurtured in Buddhist culture and Damma Schoo & his wife also a Daham school teacher. Developing a web site called Dahamsauya, is his own initiative. The Community Assistance Project of e-Society Programme of the ICTA stepped into help Eranda to implement his idea.


Daham Saura (http://dahamsayura.org) is a web site with full of Daham School Curriculum and its content. It has the content from grade 1 to 11 in local language. “ when we were given the “Nenasala” four years ago, at the very beginning of the our telecentre, We found that most of school children didn’t like to browse internet, as there wasn’t no enough content in local language at that time. Those days I determined to make available the Dhaham School content as it is a source of rich content for our society. normally to obtain the Daham school books, a student is required go to temple or attend the Daham School on Sunday. Because of the tuition classes and various other s commitments, most of the students in cities don’t attend the Daham School. But things are different in a village; most of the village students attendg the Daham School. Sometime students have difficulties in obtaining the required books for the Dharmacharya Exam. Therefore this site is enriched the Dharmachara books as well. I know most Sri Lankan Buddhists living in other foreign countries will appreciate this initiative as this web site caters to the both living in the village as well as in cities” said Eranda Sampath.

The ways of preserving the Buddhism and it teaching has changed over the years in keeping with e contemporary technology. During the early years the teachings of the Buddha were memorized I and passed down from generation to generation, then it was written in the ola leaf books, later it was printed. Today in this era of Information and Communication Technology it is being digitized making it available for future generations. It is a collective responsibility. This village proves that they are on the track to face the modern world while preserving their culture and heritage.

ICT Enabled English Teaching reaches Jaffna

After sweeping out thirty years of terrorism, the country has the prospect of reaching out to the most vulnerable groups in North and East of Sri Lanka. When consider the digital gab between souths and north is huge. While roads and infrastructures are being developed the digital divide between the North and South continues to be huge.

The e-Society Programme of ICT Agency of Sri Lanka is one that reaches out to the most vulnerable groups in the country. It has the potential to respond to the immediate needs of communities, even after the onset of disaster or any catastrophe. It can bring the benefits of technology to areas which don’t have the luxury information infrastructure through a human mesh and basic IT. It is in this manner that the Replication Assistance Programme, a component of the of e-Society programme opened a channel to replicate the English Language learning content and the application in the North and the east in the immediate aftermath of the war.



Although the literacy rate of the country has reached to 96%, the English literacy rate is far from satisfactory. Year 2009 was named as English and IT by the Government in an attempt to give focus to upgrading the level of English in the Country. . Chitranganie Mubarak, the senior programme head of the e-Society section mention that “The Government declared the Year 2009 as the year of English and IT and we are very glad to partner the National Council of the YMCAs of Sri Lanka, in replicating English Language educational content. Not only do they have the capacity, they like us, have the enthusiasm to work with the grassroots l to improve the lives of ordinary people by giving them greater access to information and education. ”. This project aims to teach English & other subjects using ICT to the youth and students in the Northern Province.

125 underprivileged students and youth in the areas of Jaffna, Navali, Point Pedro and Uduvil have continued to learn English Language through the leadership of the YMCAs in the respective areas. This effort being the first of its kind commenced in August 2009 s with the financial and technical support of ICTA (Information & Communication Technical Agency), and was welcomed with great appreciation by the communities.



The Foundation Course which was supported by audio visual illustrations enabled the students to learn the language with ease and through friendly interaction. It also provided clear instructions to the the instructors to transfer the knowledge with ease.

The students were grouped and individual learning opportunities were provided by allocating time periods for each group. Hired English Language Instructors met them at an agreed time schedules for necessary coaching and learner guidance. After the students reached the level of practicing conversation, they were encouraged to form into “English Speaking Youth Guilds”. Although in the beginning there was some hesitation and reluctance to join such group’s as their Englsih skills improved students got over their initial inhibitions.

Simplified use of English language, simplified English interpretations of Tamil language, English songs, formulating vote of thanks and practicing, English Drama, reading passages and speeches aloud in English were some of the activities conducted at “English Speaking Youth Guilds” in all the 4 YMCA language learning centres.
Periodic performance assessments enabled the instructors to monitor the level of progress of the the students and introduce suitable coaching for improving the standard of the less capable students. Those who have completed the Foundation Level have shown interest in pursuing further studies.



At the project review meeting with the National YMCA officials emphasized the fact that the “ National YMCA is determined to continue facilitating the YMCAs to continue their English Language Study Centres in a sustainable manner. For the simple reason, it has clearly shown to what level we can develop the capacity of the youth in the peninsula therby r furthering their job prospects. This will also contribute towards fulfilling the YMCAs national obligation towards expediting the development of an the area which was severely affected for 3 decades by war”.
The responsibility of the social and economic development of country does not rest purely with the Government The holistic approach of partnering with public, private and non-government sector can be make a huge difference in developing the country using Information Communication Technology.

Shriyananda Rathnayake

Active Community Participation is crucial on ICT4D project - A Success story from Baddegama

My memories go to dusty, harsh & arid environment with Silindu, Punchi Menika, Hinnihamy & Babun. “Village in the Jungle” or “Baddegama” is a well-known novel written by Leonard Woolf. Today, I can see only the big tamarind tree as mention in the novel. The environment is still arid. But the infrastructures have been developed. Instead of foot paths, new tar roads have been built, schools, irrigation cannels, new buildings, information infrastructure, are the symbols of new development which is being witnessed by tamarind tree over two hundred years. Today this area is called as Migahajandura.

His name is Pushpakumara Munasinghe, 38 years old, live in Migahajandura. He started his learning journey from Sooriyawewa National Schools, and graduated in Human Resource Management from University of Jayawardanapura. This story is a good illustration to prove the community involvement in ICT for Development.


Pushpakumara had to sit for several governments’ competitive exams to find the best fit in job for him. Every time he sat for exams, he had to find past papers, model papers as he wanted to face the exam with best pre-preparation. Pushpakumara said that “I spent at least two to three days to find the past papers, sometimes I had to go to Mathara or to Colombo, there are no classes nearby, these past papers are not to be found in libraries as well as book shops.”

Finally he joined the government sector; again he faced the same problem, when he sat to Efficiency Bar exam (EB). “I feel that the future generation should not face the problems that I had to go through. So that is why I decided to develop a web site with Question papers and model papers targeting the government exam. I have also prepared a project proposal for ICT Agency of Sri Lanka’s Community Assistance Programme (CAP) they have assisted me a lot to complete this project”


Lankaexamhelp (http://www.lankaexamhelp.com) website contains questions and model questions & answer papers for ten government competitive exams. They have also uploaded recent past papers and at least ten model papers for each exam. All papers & the answer papers can be downloaded free of charge from http://www.lankaexamhelp.com. Especially the content of the site is available in Local language-Sinhala.

Pushpakumara added further. “We wanted to develop this site further and need to translate the content in to Tamil language too. I know that sometimes we can sort-out some problems using ICT and I also know that we should not wait until the work is done by the government. We can start, I think we are empower enough to find a own solution for native problems using ICT”

http://www.lankaexamhelp.com

Shriyananda Rathnayake

To sharpen the wisdom of farming community

Sri Lanka… 20% of the country’s population and 32% of the employment is fit in to Agriculture sector and it does contribute 12.2 % to Gross Domestic Production. 70% of the population lives in rural Sri Lanka & livelihood of this sector mainly depend on Agricultural Sector.
Nenasala (The Sri Lanka Tele centre Project) also aims to meet the above target group facilitating all information infrastructures, knowledge and ICT based services. The nenasala Centers (The wisdom Canters) now have been enriched by various sectors of society such as Government departments, Non government institute and the private sector.



Together with e-Society programme of ICT Agency of Sri Lanka, Audio Visual Centre of , Department of Agriculture has launched an online learning portal on agriculture and its composites agricultural forum Agriculture Wikipedia & e-learning. The content development of the portal is still ongoing, but there are several areas that has been completed. This portal has been identified as a one of best content in South Asia and won a Award at Manthan Awards 2009.



The Agriculture content portal, goviya.lk alias Wikigoviya is a participatory and interactive web tool for agriculture development through active participation of the Agricultural Community. It is a meeting place for farmers, subject matter experts, academics, researchers’ , government departments, nongovernment organizations and private sector institutions involved in agriculture, students and even the general public.



Wikigoviya is an innovative project aimed at supporting rural agriculture on a mass scale, this web portal provides information related to agriculture in an aesthetically pleasing manner as a web based solution whose traditional flavor will enhance its ability to reach out to rural farmers. Learning material on the site is enriched with multimedia components such as video, audio, animation, pictures, illustrations and text in local languages as well as in English. The Wikigoviya Discussion Forum is open for collaborative documentation with features such as blog posts, forum posting, photo and video uploading with user comments, online chatting and friends. The forum allows users to enrich the site with their ideas and experience and post their opinions on current government policies and other issues. The local language functionality adds to its user friendliness. The Wikigoviya is a free agricultural information provider allowing user engagement and learning. It is attractive, simple in its approach and has an easy navigation structure which encourages the user to delve deep into the website to learn more on areas of particular interest.
The forum component has been developed though the famous social networking platform. All though Wikipedia contents are put in all three languages, sometimes users get confused to find the link on local language content. It seems these facilities are yet to be developed.
For more information
www.goviya.lk
http://www.goviya.lk/enwiki/index.php?title=Main_Page

Shriyananda Rathnayake