ICT Education in Sri Lanka

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ICT in the Sri Lankan School System

This is a a brief account of ICT in the Sri Lankan school curriculum. Writer is a pioneer in introducing ICT for the school system of Sri Lanka. He has an international exposure and has done a lot of research on ICT in the field of education.

Feel free to read through the document and get a first hand knowledge in what is happening in the school system with relation to Information and Communication Technology.

ICT was introduced to Sri Lankan schools in 1982.

As a pilot project, 2 Computers were given to a school. At that time programming was the main subject taught with computers.

This bored a majority of students and teachers specially who did not like mathematics.

Number of computers given to a school was not sufficient. To be confident with computers a lot of handson experience is essential. There was a need for more computers and a curriculum that was appealing to students and teachers

Computer Resource Centres (CRCs)

A major decision was taken in 1994 to put up Computer Resource Centres(CRCs) islandwide. These centres were located in a school but the students of schools neighbouring the centre could make use of these. CRCs were mainly targeted to conduct training on the use of computers to students who have sat for GCE(OL)/AL and await results. Two exams namely NCCA(Basic) and NCCA(Intermediate) were conducted by the Examination Department.


But now many schools have computer laboratories mostly given by projects funded by the ADB and World Bank. Lot of teachers has been trained to use computers. Computers are used to facilitate the teaching learning process.

A subject called ICT for GCE(OL) has emerged from 2007. Students can offer this subject at the GCE(OL) as a technical subject.

Brief Description of ICT for OL

In this course the students are given a sound knowledge in Information and Communication Technology. In this course the students are not trained not only to use the computer applications but they are given an in depth knowledge in the working of computers and computer systems.

Students are guided to do an ICT project which will help them to understand the software development life cycle.

Students are trained for a self learning style. For example if a student does not understanding the meaning of benchmark lending he can use a search engine and clarify the meaning of the word or the set of words without a mediation of a teacher. So this gives the chance for the student to explore and learn. Although Internet plays a major role in education yet due to the high cost of telephone bills and the developing infrastructure facilities schools may use CDs for browsing. But to compare prices of a hydraulic press with a mechanical press or to find rates of interest of home loan or an equity loan it is essential to use an on line system.

Students are helped to work alone with minimum supervision and help.
When working with a computer the child will encounter viruses and spam, the student should be able to activate a virus guard to protect him/her self. As time goes on he/she will have the power to collect a resource of first aid kits to recover from a disaster. He/she should have the ability to download an anti spam appliance to work safely. Student should be able to distinguish between harmful viruses and advertisements such as banners, popup and AdSense which would appear in their pages.

I am sure that this syllabus has been perfectly done so the student will not have to go to a technician to refill epson ink to the printer or to do a laptop data recovery.

Topics of ICT for OL is given below.

Unit 1 . Fundamentals of ICT

Unit 2 . Computer architecture and Operating Systems

Unit 3 . Generic Software

Unit 4 . Modern day ICT applications in the world of work

Unit 5 . System Analysis and Design

Unit 6 . Computer Programming

Unit 7 . Internet and Web Site Development

Unit 8 . IT and Society

Unit 9 . Student Project


ICT for GCE(OL) can be considered as a perfect curriculum through which students will get the foundation to pursue higher studies in ICT thereby creating a ICT literate workforce which is much needed for the country.

What are CRCs

CRCs are the Computer Resource Centres through which ICT in the school system is implemented. Teachers are trained, Software is developed, materials are distributed through these centres. There are 76 CRCs island wide. These are normally located in the premises of school.