Replication Assistant Programme (Eastern Province)

Today, the internet is a facility readily available to almost all societies in the world. The primary purpose of the Internet is to facilitate human interaction; which consists of:

     - Information publishing
     - Information retrieval
     - person-to-person communication

Although a large number of tools, websites, etc. are available for this purpose, there are only a handful of solutions which support our local languages, Sinhala and Tamil.  This situation has drastically reduced the access to the Internet and Web for our citizens.

The LAKapps project-Localizing the Internet (2007/08) was an effective initiative to address this issue.  With the successful completion of LAKapps, naturally the need arose to replicate it in more sites facilitating wider access to internet through the local languages: Sinhala/Tamil.

We observed that although there are several on-going projects for enhancing the use of IT in Sinhala, there is a lack of such programmes in Tamil. The fact that the majority of sites facilitated by LakApps was Sinhala-based also motivated us to concentrate more on Tamil communities in its replication.

The main objective of this project is to replicate the successfully concluded LakApps project in 5 additional Tamil-speaking locations, in schools and tele-centres.  The focus will be on the Eastern province. The outcome would be targeted at an ethnically balanced group of end users, primarily at these sites and others throughout the country, to successfully use the Internet in Tamil.

The components of this project are:

1.   Installing Tamil software, keyboards and applications at 5 selected locations primarily in the Eastern Province.
2.   Training and supporting co-ordinators at each site to operate and maintain the software.
3.   Conducting two (2) training programmes at each site.
4.   Printing user guides and training material for the distribution to the trainees mentioned above as well as making them available to internet  users nationwide.
5.   Holding a competition/contest to encourage the students/users at telecentres to use the localized software and awarding prizes and certificates to winners and participants respectively.
6.   Providing a server for users to create and maintain their community websites.

Project Sites

1.  Zahira College, Kalmunai
2.  AlAshraq National School, Ninthavur
3.  Wesley High School, Kalmunai
4.  St Vincent’s Girls High School, Batticaloa
5.  Nenasala, Batticaloa
6.  Zone Computer Resource Center, Kalmunai
7.  St Michael’s College, Batticaloa
8.  National College of Education, Addalachenai

Budget

LKR 1.2 million

Project Team

Prof  Gihan Dias
Dr   Sanath Jayasena
Mr DD Prabhath
Ms Dinusha Jayawardena
Ms  Mahiya Abdul Rafeek
Mr  K.  Saraveswaran
Mr  Mohamed Nimshath
Ms  Balanithy Murugiah