Category Archives: 2019 Activities

The annual general meeting of the Coalition for the Educational Development held on 6th of July 2019 at the Hector Kobbekaduwa Agrarian Research and Training Institute in Colombo. A total number of 51 member organizations who involved in the education sector at provincial and local level in Sri Lanka participated to this event. Formalities of the Annual General Meeting were started after lightning traditional oil lamp by executive committee members of Coalition for Educational Development and other guest. Vice Chairman, Ms Anjela Wijesinghe welcomed the gathering and it was followed by the reading of the minutes of the last AGM by secretary. After that Chairman presented the Annual report, highlighting the activities completed during the year 2018. Followed by the Treasurer, Mr. Chaminda Piyasekara presented the finance report of the last year. At the final session of the Annual Meeting member organizations presented their views and suggestions to enhance the effectiveness of the CED and its involvement in the education sector. After it came to conclusion with vote of thanks delivered by Mr. W.W.W Wellala, Secretary of the CED

Every country has its own day dedicated to children and in Sri Lanka it is commemorated on the 1st of October each year. As children are the most important segment of the population, it is very important to ensure their right to education by providing a safe environment for them. CED Sri Lanka conducted various activities to celebrate World Children Day. In this year in order to increase the awareness of general public on their right to education and sustainable development goals advocacy program was conducted using traditional and social media . In this program CED representatives emphasize the areas that need to pay more attention to develop education sector.

Peace, harmony and reconciliation play and important role to achieve Sustainable Development Goals and It also has been emphasized by the 2030 agenda for sustainable development. After the conclusion of 30 years of armed conflict in Sri Lanka now we are in a process of building bridges among the two divided communities. According to that Sri Lanka has identified education can play a fundamental role in building national reconciliation and peace.
With the ultimate expectation of increasing awareness on peace and reconciliation CED Sri Lanka conducted a capacity development program for its member organizations on “How to achieve Social cohesions through education”. This program was held on 10th of October in Colombo. Dr. Mohamed Mahees, Senior lecture of Colombo University facilitate this program. In this awareness session he discussed the contemporary challenges in the society and emphasized important role that education could play in building social harmony in Sri Lanka.

Natural disaster has caused human, physical, finance and environmental losses as well as substantial impact on the economy of Sri Lanka. According to the Global Climate Risk Index 2019 Sri Lanka was ranked as the second most effected country by the impact of weather related losses in 2017. As reported by Ministry of Education, 146 schools have damaged completely or partially due to the flash flood affected in 2017. Hence It is very important to armed general public by knowledge of disaster risk resilient.
CED Sri Lanka conducted training on School Disaster Risk Reduction (SDRR) to build the capacity of member organizations and in order to develop their necessary skills to cope with emergency. In addition to that we expected to share this knowledge with teachers, students, parents and general public through the member organizations. This training was held on 17 September 2019 at the South Asia Partnership Sri Lanka (SAPSRI), Rajagiriya.

As we all know young peoples are the leaders of tomorrow and are already in the game of changing the world. United Nations recognized young people as a driven force of achieving SDG goals by 2030. Therefore, we need to encourage and empower young people as a change makers of the world.

Accordingly, CED Sri Lanka conducted 18 district level awareness programs on SDGs and SDG4 for youths who are currently engaging in Vocational Training Institutes (VTI), universities and in addition to that school leavers. These training workshops were organized by CED district coordinators with the help of member organizations of the district. Through this awareness workshop CED Sri Lanka was able to reach around 1000 youth and to create a platform to discuss the factors preventing their greater access to and participation in basic and higher education, basic skills programs and engagement of employment.