The Commonwealth of Learning (COL) President and CEO Professor Asha Kanwar met with the Minister of Education in Sri Lanka, The Honourable Akila Viraj Kariyawasam, and the Secretary of the Ministry of Education, Sunil Hettiarachchi, to update them on the organisation’s work
The Commonwealth of Learning (COL) President and CEO Professor Asha Kanwar met with the Minister of Education in Sri Lanka, The Honourable Akila Viraj Kariyawasam, and the Secretary of the Ministry of Education, Sunil Hettiarachchi, to update them on the organisation’s work.
Professor Kanwar noted progress in the development of education in the country, particularly through its Higher Education initiative, open educational resources, teacher education, Lifelong Learning for Farmers initiative and work on gender equality and gender mainstreaming.
The Education Minister spoke of his appreciation for the continued involvement and efforts of COL and requested further technical support for the implementation of human resource development programmes for teachers and academic personnel, as well as capacity development.
Sri Lanka is an island nation of around 20 million people with high adult literacy rates of 91.3% and a secondary and tertiary school-age population of over 4.2 million, according to the UNESCO Institute for Statistics Data Centre in 2017.
The country recently hosted the Commonwealth Educational Media Centre for Asia (CEMCA) Advisory Council in December 2017, which included the annual report on learning opportunities provided for citizens of the Commonwealth and an update on programme activities.
In a press release, the Commonwealth organisation said: “COL values its partners in Sri Lanka and will continue to provide technical support and expertise to assist the country with meeting its educational priorities.”
