News: education

VAVUNIYA, 16 August 2011 (IRIN) - As thousands of students begin uninterrupted schooling after a lapse of years, education officials in Sri Lanka's former northern conflict zone are facing a shortage of teachers.

Sri Lanka : Sri Lanka Supreme Court to consider all petitions against leadership training on the same day

On a recent trip to Sri Lanka, I traveled by car from Colombo to Jaffna, a journey of more than 10 hours, and I discovered a city that seemed quietly determined to move forward. Two years after the devastating civil war between the Sri Lankan government and Tamil Tigers ended, signs of the decades-long conflict are still omnipresent in Jaffna, the capital of Sri Lanka’s Northern Province. Although the city’s significant landmarks are being rebuilt or rehabilitated, including Hindu temples and the revered Jaffna Public Library, many buildings remain gutted or severely pocked with bullet holes. Certain areas have not been cleared of unexploded land mines, leaving large swaths of land off-limits and thousands of families waiting to reclaim their homes and livelihoods. The strong Sri Lankan Army presence in the area gives an uneasy impression that this is not yet a society at peace. Some soldiers can be seen actively helping the mostly rural population rebuild their lives – I saw one driving a tractor with a group of farmers and another distributing cows in the middle of town – but most of the soldiers I saw were stationed on every other street corner, armed and alert.

Sri Lanka's Presidential Secretariat and Cairn Lanka Ltd signed a Memorandum of Understanding Friday (11) at the Presidential Secretariat for the construction of 27 libraries in some of the least-advantaged schools in Moneragala District. This Presidential Library Project is a concept of the President Mahinda Rajapaksa to improve the reading habit among Sri Lankan children and thereby enable them to improve knowledge, skills, and good attitudes.