KOICA and UNICEF sign $ 6 m partnership to help children learn

Wednesday, 24 October 2018 00:00 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}

The Korean International Cooperation Agency (KOICA) has signed a new multiyear partnership with the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) to support education projects in the Kilinochchi District of Sri Lanka.

A funding grant of over $ 6 million will be used to strengthen access to quality education in 13 schools, serving more than 5,000 children over the next four years.

The Educational Environment Improvement Project in the Kilinochchi District seeks to improve the quality of education and tackle inequity through the construction and renovation of classrooms, the promotion of ICT learning and teacher training.

Promoting a more child-centred and inclusive education approach that helps every student, including those with disabilities and learning difficulties, to reach their maximum learning potential will be a key objective of this project.

A lack of access to, and poor quality of, education services in the Kilinochchi District have resulted in low learning outcomes for children, when compared to the rest of Sri Lanka.

In 2017, only 57% of children who sat for the Ordinary Level (O/L) exam qualified to proceed to the Advanced Level (A/L) upper secondary education stream compared with 71% islandwide.

Furthermore, Kilinochchi was ranked the last district in O/L results in both 2016 and 2017.

KOICA Sri Lanka Office Country Director Dong Ku Lee and UNICEF Sri Lanka Representative Tim Sutton attended the signing ceremony held at the KOICA office in Colombo.

At the occasion, Lee emphasised: “To ensure inclusive and equal quality education for all is one of the core values of the SDGs. Through this project, in partnership with UNICEF, KOICA will devote itself to the improvement of the educational environment in Kilinochchi through human resource capacity building and infrastructure improvements.”

Also speaking at the event, Sutton said: “Reaching the most vulnerable children is critical if we are to ensure that every child in Sri Lanka has the opportunity to learn and grow to their full potential. This new KOICA-UNICEF partnership will help to ensure that children in the Kilinochchi District have the same learning and education opportunities as those in other parts of the country. UNICEF thanks KOICA for its continuing support and commitment to children in Sri Lanka.”

This vital support builds on Korea’s earlier collaborations with UNICEF, where nearly $ 7 million was invested in school construction and quality education initiatives in the North and East since 2011. The KOICA-UNICEF partnership contributes to the Sri Lankan Government’s ‘Vision 2025’ strategic plan, related to economic and social infrastructure and the Education Sector Development Framework.