Commercial Bank launches ‘Sipnena’ e-learning on Microsoft Cloud
View(s):A new educational website that will bring the universe of knowledge closer to Sri Lankan children has been launched by the Commercial Bank of Ceylon as a community initiative that builds on the Bank’s on-going commitments on a national scale, in the spheres of IT literacy and online education, the bank said this week.
A unique pilot project linking ‘Sipnena’ the new website, with 10 schools in diverse regions such as Jaffna in the north, Beliatta and Matara in the south, Minneriya, Kegalle and Kalawana in the North Central and Sabaragamuwa, and Nawalapitiya in the hill country, has been launched by the bank as the first phase of this initiative.
The ‘Sipnena’ website will offer students free access to content carefully selected to support their educational needs, in line with local curricula, via the IT Labs donated by the bank to these and 152 other schools around the country.
Commercial Bank’s Managing Director/CEO Jegan Durairatnam, said: “Our objective is to create an environment that integrates technology as a natural part of the educational experience and provides all learners with the skills to access knowledge that will be a foundation for their future. As a bank that is ahead in technology and a pioneer in technological advancements, we are keen to give the same technological edge to our future generations.”
He said the launch of the ‘Sipnena’ Educational website is the logical progression of the bank’s innovative online education programme, under which more than 60,000 children from 66 schools are currently accessing carefully selected mathematics and science lessons via a specially created web platform, to supplement their regular lessons in these subjects.
For the launch of ‘Sipnena’ the Commercial Bank has brought together the expertise of its own IT team headed by the Chief Information Officer; H-One, a leading IT Solutions company; Microsoft Sri Lanka, which has agreed to host the website on the Microsoft cloud free of rental; the group leaders of the Service Learning teams of the University of Colombo who will categorise the web-based lessons in accordance with the respective grades; and the bank’s CSR Unit, which will coordinate the project.
Apart from providing cloud space for the ‘Sipnena’ website, Microsoft Sri Lanka will also join hands with the CSR Trust of Commercial Bank in the near future, to train school children by experienced trainers on industry based courses in Business Process Outsourcing, Agriculture and assisted services, Tourism/Hospitality, Apparel and Media and Journalism. Both Commercial Bank and Microsoft Sri Lanka are engaged in rural empowerment and Microsoft works closely with the Ministry of Education on a number of programmes to uplift IT Literacy, with a view to making Sri Lanka a future ICT hub in the region.