Telecom Minister pledges to provide digital classrooms for students
Sri Lankan students will soon get an opportunity to study in modern digital class rooms under the government’s ambitious IT initiative of harnessing high-tech digital technology to leapfrog into a tech-savvy world, Telecommunication and Digital Infrastructure Minister Harin Fernando revealed this week. 100 digital classrooms will be set up in schools especially in rural areas providing iPads for students while keeping some of the positive elements of the traditional classroom intact, he told reporters on the sidelines of Sri Lanka’s first ever broadband forum in Colombo.
The ministry is planning to launch a pilot project in several government schools, to initially experiment this initiative and then expand it island-wide, he disclosed. The government will be able to save millions of money spent on text books every year if the project is successful, he said. Teachers and students are to be provided with a new platform eliminating the limitations of the traditional classroom, in which learning and teaching confined to boring and stressful environment paving the way for a better understanding and dissemination of knowledge.
Minister Fernanado noted that his aim is to provide favourable conditions in the classroom, in which students can learn effectively, and teachers can disseminate knowledge on par with the learning style of the objectives of present day schools. Referring to government’s efforts towards improving the broadband facilities in the island, he noted that Google’s link up with the Sri Lankan government to deliver broadband Internet countrywide which was halted due to a spectrum issue will soon resume.
The minister said that the authorities found it difficult to provide 700 MHz band for Google’s Loon as it is currently occupied by broadcasters. But the digitalisation of televising in Sri Lanka will clear this obstacle, he said. The pilot venture of Google Project Loon, which aims to provide cheap or free Wi-Fi to people in remote rural areas via a fleet of huge helium-filled balloons floating way up in the stratosphere will be re launched with the arrival of balloons from Brazil before the end of this year, the minister disclosed.
He said that Sri Lankan citizens will have free Wi-Fi/Internet access at 150 more selected public locations island-wide within the next two months increasing the total number of Wi-Fi locations to 400, as the two telecom providers Dialog and SLT will enter into an agreement to share the network shortly. Wang Shunli, Chief Executive Officer of Huawei Sri Lanka noted that his company has been supporting the country’s telecommunication sector and celebrates 10 years of operation in Sri Lanka.
Sri Lanka’s fixed-broadband penetration compared to a broad basket of South and Southeast Asian countries is relatively high, ranking 5 out of 10 countries according to a study by Ovum, an international research institute. However, Sri Lanka trails leading markets such as Malaysia, Thailand, and Vietnam, where both digital subscriber line and fibre-to- the-home (FTTH) penetration rates are far higher.