STC Gurutalawa – Smart Classrooms Project
Source : Thomiana October 2023, Volume 23 Issue 3
STC Gurutalawa’s Smart Classrooms Project was ceremonially launched on the 26th of October 2020 by the Headmaster together with the STC Guru OBA Executive Committee.
STC Gurutalawa’s biggest challenge, for quite some time, has been the difficulty of attracting quality teaching staff
to live and work in Gurutalawa. No school, especially a fee levying private school, can survive without teachers.
So as to address this challenge, and maximize resources already available in the STC fraternity, the school’s management made a decision to establish a teaching link between Gurutalawa with Mount Lavinia. The intention was for teachers in Mount Lavinia to conduct classes in Gurutalawa, via networked links, so that the students in the hills of Gurutalawa would have access to the same quality of education as their counterparts in Mount Lavinia.
Ven Fr S P Nesakumar, Headmaster, STC Gurutalawa
In 2016, the estimated funds required for the project was Rs. 2 Million. STC OBA in Melbourne helped kick-off the fundraising with a donation of a sum of Rs 850,000. Over the next year, STC Gurutalawa’s Management
worked with several vendors and network companies but the project was temporarily shelved due to a lack of a suitable solution and adequate funds. The funds raised by STC OBA (Melbourne) were subsequently invested in high yielding fixed deposit accounts that grew the capital to Rs. 1.2 Million over the next few years.
The onset of Covid-19 in 2020, however, brought new challenges as well as opportunities. Technology solution providers have rolled out viable distance learning solutions to counter the effects of COVID-19 lockdown restrictions on the education sector. As such, the STC Gurutalawa Smart Classrooms project was given a new lease on life and we invited bids from several vendors, earlier this year.
John Keells Office Automation (JKOA) was selected after considerable negotiations and the company’s CEO (Mr Janodha Thoradeniya) has taken a personal interest in ensuring the success of this Smart Classroom Project. STC
Gurutalawa has invested in four Smart Board solutions, complete with training of the school’s staff by JKOA. Our teachers have embraced the technology and improved the delivery of their lectures to their students.
This Smart Classrooms project will help breathe new life into STC Gurutalawa and that success is a testament to the ready support of the Old Thomians in Melbourne. Special thanks go out to the STC Old Boys Association in Melbourne and especially to Mr. Malik Zaveer, an Old boy of STC Bandarawala, for helping kick-off the fund raising with a generous donation at the Thomian Ball in 2016.
