Govt. to give laptops to undergrads from this year

Tuesday, 14 June 2011 00:37 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}

The Government has made the arrangement to give laptops to all students who will gain entry to Universities in the academic year2011/2012.

The first batch of 12,000 students has just completed their leadership training conducted in 28 Centres Island wide.

Secretary to Ministry of Higher Education Dr. Sunil Jayantha Navaratna told news.lk that the training for the second batch will commence on Jun 17th and the students have been informed to report to their respective training centres on 16th evening.

“Each and every student from this year onward will be given a laptop with a dongle on an easy payment system” Dr. Navaratna said.

He said that the students can buy it directly, or can pay on installment basis or they even can pay after finding employment on completion of their degrees.

Sri Lankan authorities introduced three week leadership training for university entrants as a component of orientation program that includes IT and English course as well. Leftist parties and the Students Union affiliated to Marxist JVP charged that the government is militarizing the country by giving the university students the military training.

But, on the contrary the secretary said that the students and their parents who were little bit scared of the program initially, at the end of the program were very much happy.

The higher education ministry has planned to conduct three month IT, English and soft skill development courses for the entire batch once the three week leadership training of the second batch is completed.

The academic studies for the 2011/2012 batch will start in October. This year’s intake to all national universities will be little over 22,000 students.