Intel Corporation and the National Colleges of Education (NCoE) celebrated five years of training pre-service teachers through the Intel® TEACH programme last week. The project has reached over 8,000 teachers, nearly 250 teacher training and national college lecturers, as well as numerous NCoE presidents and education directors across Sri Lanka. The celebration marking the anniversary was led by Chief Commissioner of Teacher Education, Mr. L.M.D. Dharmasena.

“Intel Teach was launched by Intel to help improve teacher training in developing countries with a focus on learning through project -based experiences instead of lecture and memorization. The pre-service teacher training ensures that all the new teachers who enter teaching have been equipped from day one to help their students face the challenges of today’s world. We are extremely happy with the progress we’ve made in Sri Lanka in the last five years, and have exciting plans to expand Intel® TEACH to bring our workshops and trainings to every Sri Lankan teacher,” said Mr. Indika De Zoysa, Country Business Manager, Intel EM Ltd.

The very first NCoE forum under the TEACH initiative was conducted for 36 NCoE presidents in 2008. This was followed by two subsequent forums presidents in 2011 and 2012. In 2009, the programme expanded to facilitate six day residential master training sessions for lecturers of national colleges and teacher training colleges. Nearly 15 sessions have taken place between 2009 and 2011. A pilot student teacher programme, targeting student teachers was also launched, training more than 8,000 participants since 2009.

“The students we took for grade one this year will make a full contribution to Sri Lanka by 2027. In addition, the student teachers we are working with now will stay in the academic system for around thirty years. We should prepare these teachers to train all these children to meet the demands of the future using latest technology to enhance their teaching and learning process and make their parents proud of our school system,” said Mr. Anura Dissanayake, Secretary, Ministry of Education.

Intel Teach relies on a combination of online and face-to-face instruction to build more flexible course offerings and train teachers around the world, and is one element of Intel’s commitment to education. Independent evaluation of the Intel Teach program revealed participating teachers reported their students were “motivated and involved in the lesson” and that “student projects showed more in-depth understanding” than other comparable work.

About Intel: Intel (NASDAQ: INTC) is a world leader in computing innovation. The company designs and builds the essential technologies that serve as the foundation for the world’s computing devices. Additional information about Intel is available at newsroom.intel.com and blogs.intel.com

Photo caption: (From left) Mr. Indika De Zoysa, Mr. L.M.D. Dharmasena (Chief Commissioner Teacher Education), Mr. Anura Dissanayake (Secretary/MoE), Mr. Ranjith Karunasiri (Project Director, EKSP)