Korean govt. offers US$ 30mn soft loan to improve SL’s ICT education

Dr. Samaratunga after signing the loan agreement 

The Korean government has agreed to provide a concessional loan of US$ 30 million (approx. Rs.5, 460 million) to establish a National Centre of e-Content Development for Computer Assisted Teaching in Sri Lanka. 

The objectives of the proposed project are to improve ICT teaching and learning environment for secondary education in Sri Lanka, enhance teachers’ ICT education capacity, and provide equal opportunity in education for every student including those living in rural areas.

The project will be executed by the Ministry of Education (MOE). The MOE plans to expand ICT training facilities to provide education, using ICT technologies such as e-learning services and ICT training. 

In line with the plan, it is proposed to establish a fully-equipped National Contents Development Centre (NCDC) in the North Western province and two Provincial ICT Education Centres (PICTEC) in the Eastern and Southern provinces. 

NCDC and each PICTEC will engage in developing e-learning contents and the content will be shared among teachers and students through e-Thaksalawa, and other trainings programmes currently in operation.

In this context, the Economic Development Cooperation Fund (EDCF) of the Export-Import Bank (Exim Bank) of Korea has agreed to provide a Won loan not exceeding the equivalent of US$ 30,099,000 to establish the National Centre of e-Content Development for Computer Assisted Teaching in Sri Lanka. 

The interest rate per annum will be 0.15 percent with a repayment period of 40 years including a grace period of 10 years. 

The signing of loan agreement pertaining to this took place yesterday at the Finance Ministry. The loan agreement was signed by the Finance Ministry Secretary Dr. R H S Samaratunga.