Ravindu Peiris
Shilpa Sayura grabbed the prestigious i4d Award at the eINDIA 2007 conference in New Delhi while also being short-listed as a finalist for the Stockholm Challenge GKP Awards to be held in Kuala Lampur, Malaysia on December 13 this year.
Shilpa Sayura initiated by eFusion gained international recognition through the Information for Development (i4d) Award it received for the innovative software which supports the rural students by being a Digital Self Learning Solution. It now seeks Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) to replicate the system in 400 villages of Sri Lanka. Shilpa Sayura was initiated with a grant of Rs.5 million from ICTA eSDI. It has demonstrated the usability of the Sinhala Unicode endorsed by Sri Lanka and its quality has been commended by the National Institute of Education, Universities of Colombo and Moratuwa.However Project Director Niranjan Meegammana said that there was a lack of funds for the further expansion of this project.
Therefore currently a Shilpa Sayura Foundation is formed to enable multi stakeholder participation for expanding island wide villages and invites corporate citizens and NGOs to become stakeholder in developing education in rural villages. “Shilpa Sayura can be such a programme to uplift the rural villages,” Environment Minister Champika Ranawaka said regarding the enhancement of the Digital Learning system Shilpa Sayura in the country.
The software Shilpa Sayura developed in the Sinhala language and successfully piloted in 20 Nenasala Centres facilitating the 9 G.C.E Ordinary Level Subjects as well as Geography, General Knowledge and Environment Studies covering syllabuses from Grade 6 to 11.
Megammana said that the software was more developed and that it goes beyond the text books in school covering the syllabus in a most efficient manner.
This state of the art software creates a hope in rural children to develop their careers in ICT and business. Moreover Minister Ranawaka wished the Shilpa Sayura project the very best in its expansion plans and also for its future.
Source : Daily MirrorM
