‘Lanka cannot miss opportunity to be part of digital
era – Prof. Gihan Dias
Sarvodya–Fusion Steers Future Generation to Be Responsible
Digital Citizens with ‘IT Yahamaga’ Program
Wednesday, March 27, 2019 - 01:00
In a bid to help school children gain digital literacy through
responsible handling of internet and social media, Sarvodaya-Fusion launched another step of
the program ‘IT Yahamaga’ recently to educate school principals, vice
principals, sectional heads and student counselors. IT Yahamaga is a comprehensive program
to educate and create a positive influence a cross a section of society
including children, teachers and parents, to help the future generation become
responsible digital citizens. Sarvodaya-Fusion
has been working on ICT for development (ICT4D)
initiatives since 2007, providing digital literacy, digital access and digital
benefits to semi urban and rural communities. IT Yahamaga has been designed as an
interactive program to create awareness among different community groups with
special focus on school children in collaboration with the Ministry of
Education Sri Lanka. Over 150 educators
representing 65 schools took part in the recent programme held in Kurunegala.
“The wider Sri Lankan society, especially in rural areas, has a
negative perspective about internet usage and social media. This has led most
schools and even parents to prohibit children from using the internet and
engaging in social media interaction, depriving them of valuable learning
opportunities. However, the new world requires digitally savvy, engaged
citizens. It is up to the government, tech companies and community service
organizations to mitigate any adverse impact and raise awareness of the wise
usage of digital tools. We’ve been successfully playing a key role in changing
perspectives since we started the IT Yahamaga program in 2015,” commented
General Manager of Sarvodaya-Fusion, Maithree Malwattegoda.
With the rapid expansion of technological tools and apps,
communities need to learn to use IT for the right reasons and become
responsible digital citizens. IT Yahamaga works towards educating the audience
on how to be safe in this digital age and sources to seek help and support.
“We are privileged to partner with Sarvodaya-Fusion for this
initiative and in educating students on the benefits of the internet and social
media for their educational and life needs to over 20,000 students over the
years. We are glad to support both teachers and parents and on the need to play
a vital role in empowering the younger generation to make use of technological
advancements in a responsible manner. We also plan to initiate a program
especially targeting females under a theme ‘hithawathi,’ to support them on
issues they face when on the internet. As a nation, we cannot afford to pass up
the opportunity to become part of the digital era and become change agents of
the future. We need to be on par with global trends in a conscious and
visionary manner,” added Director/ Chief Executive Officer of LK Domain
Registry Prof. Gihan Dias.
The partnership with the Ministry of Education has enabled
Sarvodaya-Fusion to reach over 40,000 school children since 2015 and nearly
1,000 school teachers.
Director of Education (ICT) from the Ministry of Education, P. N.
Illepperuma said, “Information Technology has become extremely vital in all
aspects of our lives and across all sectors. Many obstacles are faced if the
basic understanding and knowledge is not given and for this reason, an
important mandate of the government is to invest in improving Information
Technology, especially at secondary education level in schools. Currently, we
have over 150,000 computers in schools and under the ‘Smart Classroom’
initiative, we encourage schools and school teachers to include Information
Technology into various subjects. According to the Census Department
statistics, our digital literacy rates are high and a high percentage of it
represents our school children. Therefore, the school is the best place to
guide and educate these children and it should be done by Principals and
Teachers. We have already taken steps to educate and train teachers and
children on the accurate use of Information Technology and we are pleased to
partner with LK Domain Registry and Sarvodaya-Fusion on this initiative.”
The Ministry of Education has introduced ICT as a subject from
grade six, providing access to the digital world to almost all schools in the
country. A large number of schools are equipped with computers as well as
internet facilities. The next step would be to help teachers and parents to
understand the benefits of ICT and their role to help the future generation to
become responsible digital citizens.