English programmes – Ginnoruwa Social Forun
- Monthly English Programe- Ginnoruwa
Ginnoruwa Social Program, with the support of our local and international friends, organized a one-day English Program in last February at Ginnoruwa Vidyalaya. There were more than 200 students, and the program was organized with the intention of exposing the younger generation to a new world through enhancing their English language skills. However, as we emphasized in that program, it cannot be done within a single program, but it can only be achieved through continuously exposing to English language and regularly practicing it.
I started a free English teaching program for students in Ginnoruwa since I went there for my field works in 2018. Hereafter, this program will be converted into a “Monthly English Program”, as an extension to the one-day English program we recently organized and will take place at Ginnoruwa Kanishta Vidyalaya from next month. In this program, we will mainly focus on activities that encourage students to learn English, rather than covering syllabuses.
The ultimate, long-term goal of all these programs is to create an environment to build the future generation that will contribute to a better socio-cultural-political change that we all expect…We are optimistic with that.
- Education for Social Change: English Language Program, Ginnoruwa
“There are death societies in each and every village in Sri Lanka, there are billions of money in those societies. The only thing people expect from these societies is a coffin and arrange their funeral when they die. It is sad that most of these people who are really thinking about their death do not spend a little time on things that should do when they are alive..” This was told by one of our well-known friends who spent almost four decades of her life on social works.
“Ginnoruwa Social Forum” was also formed in a similar social environment with the aim of producing a generation equipped with critical thinking and human values. The English Language Program held on 9th February at Ginnoruwa Vidyalaya is the latest work of this collective. The main purpose of the program was to create an enthusiasm for children to learn English as a secondary language, but we also tried to stress them that learning English shouldn’t be a mere focus of getting through exams.
We tried our best to inculcate the idea that “Learning another language is becoming another person” as expressed by Haruki Murakami. The program, held from 9am to 4pm, was attended by more than two hundred students from Grade 1 to 11 and through the responses of students, it is evident that the program was a novel experience for almost all of them. Thus, the main request of both parents and students was to conduct a series of such programs in future and the time will decide to which extent our intervention was effective and influential in their lives…
The intellectual support extended by Chrishanthi and Shyama at Sapugaskanda Vishaka Balika Vidyalaya, Nishan Classidas at Nalanda College, Colombo, Ben Hildred from Durham University and Oliver Friedman from Australian National University is invaluable. Moreover, we highly appreciate the contribution of Krishantha Fedricks and Vidarshana Dominic, and on be half of the school, principal, vice-principal Gamini Dissanayaka, Umayanga Ekanayaka and all the other teachers since the beginning to the end of the program. Without the financial contribution extended by our dear friends Viveka Kudaligama and Wijayananda Rupasinghe, a lecturer at University of Kelaniya, this work would have been much more difficult to conduct, thus our sincere gratitude should go to both of them. Furthermore, all the support given by Mr. Kumara Kathriarachchi, Residential Project Manager, Mahaweli System C, and Aranvinda to make sure everything is in order should be highly appreciated.
Finally, but most importantly, the interest and the dedication of Ginnoruwa villagers to make this event successful was really impressive. It is a sign of their dedication towards building their future generation with skills such as critical thinking and progressive humane values, which is also an inspiration for us as we are also working for a progressive society….
(Photo credits: Ben Hildred and Sithumini Mendis)
- ඉංග්රීසි භාෂා කඳවුර, ගින්නෝරුව – දෙවන පියවර
ප්රදේශයේ පවතින අනෙකුත් බොහෝ සමිති සමාගම් වලට සාපේක්ෂව ගින්නෝරුව සමාජ සංසදය ක්රියාත්මක වන්නේ මිනිසුන්ගේ චින්තනයට එහෙමත් නැත්නම් සිතන පතන ආකාරය වෙනස් කිරීම අරමුණු කරගෙනය. ඒ ඔස්සේ වඩාත් යහපත්, සාධාරණ සමාජ ක්රමයක් ගොඩ නගා ගැනීමේ අරමුණ ඇතිවය.
එහි තවත් එක් කුඩා පියවරක් සනිටුහන් කරමින් දෙවන ඉංග්රීසි කඳවුර පසුගිය අගෝස්තු 29 වනදා ගින්නෝරුව, ශ්රී විජයසුන්දරාරාම විහාරස්ථානයේදී පැවැත්විය. ඒ සඳහා සම්පත්දායකයින් ලෙස සපුගස්කන්ද, විශාඛා විද්යාලයේ ක්රිෂාන්ති සහ ශ්යාමා යන ආචාරවරියන් දෙපලද, ඔස්ට්රේලියානු ජාතික විශ්වවිද්යාලයෙ ඉගෙනුම ලබන ඔලිවර් සහ කැළණිය වි.වි.යේ විදර්ශන ඩොමිනික් සොයුරන්ද දැක්වූ දායකත්වය පැසසුම්සහගතය. වැඩසටහන සංවිධානය කිරීම වෙනුවෙන් උමයන්ග සිතුමිණි, උපුල් සහ ක්රිෂාන්ත ෆෙඩ්රික්ස් මෙන්ම ගින්නෝරුව සමාජ සංසදයේ අනෙකුත් සහෝදර සහෝදරියන්ද දැක්වූ දායකත්වය සිහිපත් කල යුතුය. එමෙන්ම, සම්පත් දායකයින්ට නවාතැන් පහසුකම් සහ ආහාර ලබා දීමේදී මහවැලි C කලාපය බාර නේවාසික ව්යාපෘති කළමණාකාර කුමාර කත්රිආරච්චි මහතා ලබ දුන් සහයෝගයද ඉතා අගය කොට සළකමු.
පළමු වැඩසටහනේදී මෙන්ම ළමුන් ඉතා උනන්දුවෙන් මෙවරද සම්බන්ධ වූ අතර පාසල් නිවාඩු කාලයේදි වුවත් සියයකට ආසන්න පිරිසක් සහභාගී වූ අතර වැඩසටහන හරහා ඉංග්රීසි භාෂාව ඉගෙනීමට ඔවුන් තුල යම් උනන්දුවක්, ආශාවක් ඇති කිරීමට සමත් වූ බව අපගේ විශ්වාසයි. මෙවැනි වැඩසටහන් ඉදිරියටත් සංවිධානය කිරීමට ඔබටත් අපත් සමඟ එකතු විය හැකිය…
- English as a seed of social transformation
There was a time that being fluent in English was considered as a privilege in the society. Only the elite class children got the opportunity to be excelled in English at that time. However, today, the situation has been transformed significantly, though it has not completely changed. Today, English proficiency is essential in securing a proper life style including finding a job.
children.
Encouraging children in Ginnoruwa to learn English to find a job is not the only objective of this workshop. Rather, the main objective of the workshop is to open them a door to a new world, to a new culture by mastering English language, the most prominent international language today. We believe that such interventions will contribute to reduce the cultural backwardness we as a society experiencing at present. For us, language is not just a communication tool, but it is also an expression of a particular culture, particular world view.
Already we have received the support of many people to make this event successful. A couple of English teachers from a prominent school in Colombo has agreed to design the workshop and conduct voluntarily. Moreover, a couple of foreign friends from the UK and USA, has agreed to participate on the workshop by their own cost and we hope their presence will inject some enthusiasm for children to learn English. However, still we need securing some funds to cover the cost of refreshments for children and resource persons. You, who sense both the long term and short-term importance of this program, also have the opportunity to join with us by financially contributing (contact +94 766 881 525).
Your support will contribute to a progressive cultural-political change in those communities!
