Microsoft has announced to expand its Navalova project to cover Colombo schools after funding nearly 40 rural schools as part of efforts to touch one million people by 2009 through MS education and training initiatives.
The Navalova project is a key initiative under the non-commercial memorandum of understanding signed with the Sri Lankan government in 2005, in a bid to bridge the digital divide, by jointly improving the ICT literacy of Sri Lankan school students and teachers. The initiatives are founded under Partners in Learning (PiL) programme, a global Microsoft initiative operating in the Kindergarten to Grade 12 space. Microsoft Sri Lanka said it hopes to reach at least one million people directly or indirectly through its training and education efforts by 2009. The Navalova project focuses on training school teachers in the use of IT, to encourage the use of IT in the classroom. The first phase of the Navalova program covered the North Central, Central, North Western & North Eastern provinces of the country. In this phase, 1593 teachers belonging to 20 schools in those areas underwent training. Under Phase Two of the project, Microsoft provided funds to the ICT Education Branch of the Ministry of Education to train 1406 teachers from 18 schools in Uva, Southern and Western provinces.
