With the intention of promoting the use of IT in the rural areas of the country, the Ministry of Education,
in collaboration with the Presidential Secretariat launched a pilot e-Village Programme, ‘Secondary
Education Modernization Project II’ (SEMP II), and funded by the Asian Development Bank.
The programme comprising many activities was, initially launched in the Sabaragamuwa, Uva, Central,
Wayaba and Southern provinces.
In order to further enhance the quality of project outputs, the managers of the five pilot projects have been
given the opportunity to attend a conference held in Baramati, India. The conference on ICT and Development
that commenced on the23rd March concluded on the 30th.
India is a large country with a large population. Ten days is too short a period to explore and study such a vast nation as India. But this is a report on observations made during ten days of touring into a few of its regions.
There were about 200 delegates attending the conference from India and various countries in the region including Sri Lanka. Among the key note speakers were, Sharad Kulkarni, Chairman of the Vidya Pratistan Institute for Information Technology(VIIT), Sri Subash Pani, Indian State Official, John Davies, Intel, Asst. Director, and others.
In order to observe how ICT was used to meet development objectives we visited a community radio station in
Baramathi.
Praja (Community) Radio Station
Health :- Telemedicine
Hospitals visited were either managed by the state or privately owned. Among these was the State hospital
in Baramathi Town where we were able to observe how computers were used to diagnose illnesses. Here, we saw
computers, cameras, scanners and printers used for the purpose.
A team work at the Baramathi hospital telemedicine centre
Some equipment used at the Telemedicine centre
After the conference the Sri Lankan contingent arrived in Chenai city in India and remained at the for Indian Institute Information Technology (IIT) in Madras from the 26th to 30th February. During this period many places were visited and the observations made are reported as follows:
Education:-
It seems the Indian government pays little attention towards improving the educational system of that country.
For example, there is a low level of participation of children in the school education system in rural villages. Those who
attend are very weak in reading and writing. The economic problems, a lack of interest among adults, and a lack of facilities, seem to be the barriers for that.
In rural villages there seems to be little attention given to applying modern techniques to develop education.
Especially, the use of computer in the field of education is minimal.
Students of a primary class doing their studies with computers donated by a private organization.
A visit to private institutes
However, an obvious feature was that there were many private educational and technological institutes functioning in the regions.These institutes used modern equipment and teaching methods including internet exploration.
A group of women being trained in a e-praja centre
Beneficiaries working on computers in an e-praja centre
A group of women making bags using banana fiber to be sold on e-commerce
Oasis Damahana - Balangoda 
