A special meeting to review Sri Lanka’s national programme to digitalise the school education system and map out its next steps was held at the Parliament Complex, with more than 6,000 schools targeted under the initiative.
According to Ada Derana, the meeting was chaired by Prime Minister and Minister of Education Dr. Harini Amarasuriya. Daily Mirror reported that the review assessed the progress of the country’s education digitalisation drive. Attendees included Deputy Minister of Digital Economy Eranga Weeraratne, the President’s Chief Advisor on Digital Economy Dr. Hans Wijayasuriya, and senior officials from the Digital Task Force, the Ministry of Education, the Ministry of Digital Economy, GovTech, the Sri Lanka Air Force, Sri Lanka Telecom (SLT) and Dialog Axiata.
Officials reviewed efforts to provide high-speed fibre-optic internet to schools nationwide, and discussed alternative solutions for institutions where fibre connectivity cannot be installed due to geographical or technical limitations. A central focus was accelerating the School Internet Project, which aims to connect more than 6,000 secondary schools to national digital systems and online learning platforms.
The meeting also addressed expanding digital facilities such as Distance Learning Management Systems, Smart Classrooms, the National Education Management Information System (NEMIS) and a modernised e-Thaksalawa platform. It was decided that the Ministry of Education and GovTech would formalise a partnership through a Memorandum of Understanding to drive implementation.
Officials further stressed online child safety, including measures to counter online gambling addiction among schoolchildren and strengthen awareness programmes as digital access expands.
