High Commissioner of India to Sri Lanka, Santosh Jha, and Mrs. J.M. Thilaka Jayasundara, Secretary of the Ministry of Education and Science and Technology, signed and exchanged diplomatic letters on October 18, 2024, formalizing the modalities to double the Government of India’s (GOI) grant support for the upgradation of nine schools in Sri Lanka’s plantation regions.
With the additional funding requested by the Government of Sri Lanka, the GOI’s total commitment to this project now amounts to SLR 600 million.
The initiative aims to enhance the infrastructure of nine plantation schools identified by the Sri Lankan government, which includes six schools located in the Central Province and one school each in the Uva, Sabaragamuwa, and Southern Provinces.
This project contributes to India’s extensive list of past and ongoing development partnership initiatives in Sri Lanka’s education sector.
In addition to supporting infrastructure development and equipment supply, training and capacity-building have also been key focus areas in India’s development cooperation projects in Sri Lanka.
Highlights of India’s assistance include: the renovation of over 100 schools in the Northern Province; establishment of 40 e-libraries in the Southern and Eastern Provinces; provision of 110 buses to educational institutions across the island; creation of English language laboratories in all provinces; establishment and renovation of auditoriums at various institutions, including the Rabindranath Tagore Memorial Auditorium at Ruhuna University; construction of a multi-ethnic trilingual school in Polonnaruwa, North Central Province; support for vocational training institutions such as the Thondaman Vocational Training Centre in Hatton, Central Province, and the Vantharamullai and Onthachimadam Centres in the Eastern Province; and the establishment of smart classrooms and computer labs in 200 schools in Galle, Southern Province.
Recently, a three-month teacher training program in STEM subjects for plantation schools was also conducted under the multi-sectoral grant assistance of INR 750 million, announced last year to commemorate the 200th anniversary of the arrival of the Indian-origin Tamil community in Sri Lanka.
