September, 18, 2018
ESOFT is not just another institute that awards qualifications. We have a range of products and qualifications, and play a big role in bridging the skills gap of the youth of the country. We make a school leaver into someone employable, where we take 35,000 enrollments per year in 40 centres around the country.
We create a big impact in making a school leaver employable, mainly focusing on developing IT and English skills.
We have also made degrees more affordable and accessible to the average middle class family of the country. Our fees are one of the lowest in the industry, and we give the added flexibility of paying in non-secured installments whereas most other places ask for bulk payments to be paid either at the start of the semester, or at the start of the academic year. Parents don’t need to have a high savings to educate their children via ESOFT. If they have an above average salary, they can still afford to educate their children, so that they may do better in life. Most parents would not be in a position to even apply for a bank loan, as they would find it difficult to present a land as collateral, or even find two guarantors who would be willing to sign on their behalf. ESOFT takes that entire risk, and offers installment based course fee payments where the student / parent can pay in low monthly installments.
Our Higher National Diploma (HND) programme is available in more than 15 locations around the country. This reduces the expense of travel and lodging, and allows the students to complete their qualification closer to home, and the parents have the peace of mind that their children are within their sight.
Our courses even empower students who are studying in state universities, as some would simply do the degree in the state university since they got selected for it, but not because it is their choice or area of passion. These students will study in the state universities full time, and follow our programmes on a part time basis, thereby earning a double qualification in the same amount of time.
This shows that we do not cater to just an elite crowd. We have made British higher education reachable and more affordable to the common person and thereby created the opportunity for them to be globally employable, by achieving a world class education.
There are a number of different qualifications that ESOFT offers.
Some of our programmes are certificate level short courses which are designed to impart specific skills. These programmes are either TVEC registered, or international certifications coming from reputed names such as Microsoft, Oracle, and Cisco. We have also started to introduce NVQ qualifications throughout the country, to cater for the requirements of those who are looking for recognised and affordable local government qualifications.
Other qualifications that we offer are not our own awards. They come from recognised and reputed international awarding bodies.
Our Diplomas and Higher National Diplomas come with certification from Pearson UK, which is the world’s largest awarding body.
Our Degrees and Degree level qualifications come from London Metropolitan University and Kingston University UK, and the BCS: Chartered Institute for IT – UK, and University of Colombo School of Computing for the BIT External Degree.
Sri Lanka does not yet have a mechanism to regulate or control institutions like us which offer these types of foreign higher education qualifications. This is why international partnerships and accreditations are important, so that the recognition is there for the qualifications that the students achieve.
Both the TVEC and the University Grants Commission recognise the international partners that we operate with. Our UK degrees are therefore UGC recognised. Some institutions claim incorrectly that their foreign programmes are UGC approved, which is misleading. UGC Approval is granted only for state or non-state degree or postgraduate qualifications which are locally designed and awarded. Also note that these qualifications in turn, may not be recognised internationally, unless they have gone for that additional step of getting international accreditation for the awarding institution.
UGC approval for an institution is granted based on a number of stringent criteria including physical facilities and resources, academic capability, financial stability, and a number of other factors. ESOFT is currently in the last stages of obtaining the UGC / Ministry approval to be a non-state degree awarding institution, and this is being done at our own initiation and not due to any legal requirement.
There are a number of projects that ESOFT has carried out over the years, with the intention of contributing back to society. Prominent among these are the following projects.
This is a national quiz competition that ESOFT did in collaboration with the Computer Society of Sri Lanka, where the knowledge and technical and financial contribution for running the programme for the past five years was entirely borne by ESOFT. It was nationally televised and was one of the highest rated shows within its category.
This was a concept of ESOFT, done in collaboration with Sirasa TV. Government schools with low facilities were asked to write in and explain why they deserved to be one of the recipients, and over a three year period, a total of 33 computer labs were donated to schools across the entire country. The donation included a minimum of eight computers, a printer and network equipment, furniture, and carpeting and the cost per location was in excess of 1 million rupees. With airtime and production costs, the entire budget exceeded 40 million rupees.
This year, we offered millions of rupees worth of scholarships to students selected for state universities. The programmes available to them were our short courses in English and IT, as we strongly believe that these are areas that require more development in this country. Students simply had to show us their Z-score to claim the scholarships which ranged from 100% to 25%. More than 1200 students made use of this opportunity to learn from ESOFT.
Various training and development work were undertaken at schools around the country, at their invitation. These are done free of charge for soft skills development, revision for ICT subjects for state exams, and teacher training workshops in partnership with provincial and zonal education departments. These are all done to help uplift the school network and to better empower the teachers and the students.
There are a number of recognitions and accolades that ESOFT has acquired over the past few years.
ESOFT partnered with the British Computer Society in the year 2000 as a registered course provider, and since then have produced more than 50 Sri Lankan and World Prize winners, thereby helping to bring international recognition to Sri Lanka. In 2007, ESOFT became an Accredited Course Provider of the BCS, and we are the only such partner in Sri Lanka, and are the largest BCS Higher Education Qualification course provider in the world. In 2014 and 2016, BCS recognised ESOFT as the Gold Partner (highest level) in the large scale institution sector for our unique accomplishments.
ESOFT partnered with Pearson Edexcel in 2009 to offer the Higher National Diploma qualifications. By 2012, we collected our first award as the fastest developing centre in Sri Lanka. By 2013, we had achieved Gold Partner status which was again awarded to us in 2015 and 2016 for three consecutive Gold awards. This week, Pearson awarded us the Platinum Partner award for the year 2017, based on the large number of students that we had registered with them for the HND. This makes ESOFT the largest BTEC HND Partner in Sri Lanka.
In 2014 and 2015, we applied for the National Business Excellence Competition, which is awarded by the National Chamber of Commerce. In 2014 we received the Merit Award, and in 2015 we received the Runners-up award in the Education Services sector.
The current allegation against ESOFT involves two students of the Gampaha branch who claim that they were cheated of their money. This is a claim that we adamantly deny as ESOFT is not an institution that simply sells a qualification or a certificate. There are numerous academic requirements that need to be fulfilled including exams, assignments, presentations, and so on. The students concerned have completed only half of their qualification in terms of assignments and assessments. Simply having completed the time period of 2 years does not entitle them to the final qualification.
We would like to stress that the qualification must be earnt, as we are not on a short journey to just make money and vanish. ESOFT has a strong track record of 18 years, operating in 40 locations throughout the country. We have produced thousands of graduates who are now gainfully employed both locally and globally. Any organization may have unhappy customers, and the general procedure would be for them to raise any concerns or complaints to the higher management if the genuine interest is to solve the problem. In this instance, the two students never complained or raised their concerns to the head office, which they could have done easily. A number of solutions were presented to them to complete their qualification, but they chose to go to the Police. Thereafter we were sent a letter of demand via their lawyer and we responded suitably and they had the option of taking this to court. It is therefore unfortunate that they have resorted to a hate campaign which is aimed at destroying the goodwill and positive image that we have nurtured and built over the past many years. We are still open to solving their issue if they approach us in the proper way without resorting to such tactics. They are ultimately students, and we are an educational institution which contributes to the uplifting of the Sri Lankan youth.
The issue of these two students has now been hijacked by others who have a vested interest in ensuring that private sector higher education is shut down. We thoroughly deny the allegation that they make about us being a degree mill. The thousands of successful graduates that we have produced over the years will bare testament to that.
What these parties do not talk about are the thousands of students who have successfully completed all academic requirements, and achieved their qualifications, and are now gainfully employed and economically independent and not a burden to the government or to society. If private sector higher education institutions did not exist, what would be the future for these students? What would be the economic implications for them and their parents? Not everyone can afford to send their children overseas to learn at foreign universities. The non-existence of private sector higher education would have severe consequences not only on the Sri Lankan economy, but also on the lives of the Sri Lankan youth. We would like to re-iterate that we are all for regulation of the private sector higher education sector. That is why we have voluntarily applied to the Ministry of Higher Education to be a recognised institution, in line with the current gazette notification.
In conclusion, we would like to request all concerned to not be misled by the naysayers. Look at our 18 year track record and the accomplishments of our graduates. ESOFT has stayed true to her motto of “Shaping Lives, Creating Futures…”
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