Kandiyapitawewa, Monaragala | 9–15 June
The Shilpa Sayura Technology and Cultural Festival celebrates the successful completion of the Shilpa Sayura pilot project while bringing together rural communities, educators and ICT professionals. Following the success of the pilot in 20 Nenasala Telecentres, the project aims to expand to more than 380 centres nationwide, strengthening rural education and reducing the gap between rural and urban students.
The festival is held at Kandiyapitawewa, one of the most remote villages where the pilot project was successfully implemented. Located on the Bintenne Plain in Monaragala District near Udawalawe National Park, the village provides an ideal setting to demonstrate how ICT can empower rural communities.
Festival Highlights
- Community ICT awareness programmes
- ICT for Youth
- ICT for Women
- ICT for Farmers
- Community technology demonstrations
- Government information services
- School ICT education
- ICT for employment
- Sinhala Unicode Group meeting on localisation and community software development
ICT experts, academics, ICTA representatives, University of Colombo scholars, the Sinhala Unicode Group, the Department of Agriculture, teachers and community ICT practitioners shared their knowledge directly with villagers, students and teachers. All sessions were conducted in Sinhala, encouraging two-way communication and community participation.
The event was also broadcast through
www.shilpasayura.org.
Why This Event Was Different
Unlike most ICT conferences, this event deliberately moved technology to one of Sri Lanka’s most remote villages. ICT professionals from diverse disciplines volunteered their time to work directly with the community, demonstrating how technology can support education and rural development.
As a result, Shilpa Sayura has become more than an educational software project. It has evolved into a collaborative ICT community network that connects rural communities with educators, researchers and technology professionals.
About Shilpa Sayura
Shilpa Sayura is an ICTA e-Society funded pilot project initiated by E Fusion (Pvt) Ltd. It provides a Sinhala-language digital learning system covering eight GCE Ordinary Level subjects for Grades 6–11. Designed for self-learning, the system supports students in remote communities where educational resources and qualified teachers are limited.