Students from several schools were awarded certificates and trophies by Education Minister Akila Viraj Kariyawasam at the National Level School ICT Championship for the seventh consecutive year recently. It was organised by the Information and Communication Technology (ICT) Branch of the Ministry of Education, Sri Lanka Information Technology Industrial Board (FITIS) and Computer Society of Sri Lanka (CSSL) at the Ministry of Education Auditorium.
The Secretary of Education, W.M. Bandusena, Additional Secretary (School affairs), A.S. Hewage, the director in charge of Information and Communication Technology, G.M. Neil Gunadasa, the Chairperson of Sri Lanka Information Technology Industrial Board, Chinthaka Wijewikrama, Vice Chairperson of the Computer Society of Sri Lanka, Yasas Abeywikrama, Professor ofthe Computer School of the University of Colombo (UCSC), GihanWikramanayaka, Principals, teachers and others participated.
The awards were handed over to students on Junior, Senior and Merit categories. Awards were presented for ‘Online competition of government school software creations (NSSC)’, ‘Young Computer Scientist Competition (YCS) Government Schools’, ‘Young Computer Scientist Competition (YCS) International Schools’ and 'CreativeTeacher Competitions.’
The Minister highlighted the importance of ICT and the value of competitions of this nature. The Minister stated that Sri Lanka has to deviate from the present foreign exchange earning method of sending housemaids to Middle East countries and that it is essential to promote information technology based approaches.
The Education Secretary, W.M. Bandusena said it is planned to introduce new test items to these competitions from 2016 to assess skills in ICT.
Pix : Dushmantha Mayadunne
