Prime Minister Dr. Harini Amarasuriya met with representatives of Rotary International and professionals from Sri Lanka’s software industry on May 8 at the Prime Minister’s Office, in a session facilitated by the Digital Task Force, to chart a path for digitalising the country’s school education system.
The discussions centred on three pillars the Prime Minister identified as essential: physical infrastructure, quality educational content, and teacher training. Dr. Amarasuriya stressed that building connectivity and devices alone would not be enough without well-trained teachers and content suited to local curricula.
Plans are underway to establish smart classrooms in 100 selected schools, with the first phase equipping 50 schools and the remainder to follow. The government is also targeting the 20 National Colleges of Education as the delivery centres for digital teacher training, aiming to familiarise approximately 6,000 trainee teachers per year with digital technology — a scale the Prime Minister said could produce a qualitative shift across the entire school system.
Rotary International representatives offered to provide digital learning platforms to the government free of charge and to assist in creating educational content using artificial intelligence. Both parties also discussed practical challenges including electricity costs and internet connectivity expenses at schools.
The initiative is closely linked to the National AI Policy Framework, which was soft-launched on May 8 in partnership with the US Embassy and the University Grants Commission, and which includes measures for integrating AI tools across state universities and secondary schools.
