Aid Sri Lanka Foundation

Project Overview: Kottagama School

This project will provide much needed facilities to improve the capacity of the teaching staff to provide quality education in a safe environment.

Kottagama school, situated in a remote rural area in Sri Lanka’s dry zone caters for 200 children from poor families. Facilities at this school are extremely basic, lacking sufficient space and equipment for the pupils and much of what they do have is in need of maintenance.

Government attention and financial assistance do not venture this far off the beaten track. With a desperate need for extra teaching space, the parents collected funds for the construction of a new building housing three classrooms. Using the money for purchasing materials the parents undertook the work themselves. The money has run out and the building remains unfinished. As these people struggle just to feed their families there are simply no more funds available. Because of the need for space, lessons are taking place in these half finished rooms, a far from ideal setting for learning.

The teachers and principal are desperate to provide better facilities for the children in their care. They approached Aid Sri Lanka for funds to purchase the materials necessary for the completion of the building. The construction work will be undertaken by the parents, keeping the overall cost low.

On visiting the site it became clear that the overall facilities of the school were extremely basic and could be significantly improved at minimal cost. For example, the dusty playground contained no recreational equipment and the disrepair of the grounds and buildings were potentially dangerous to the pupils.

Aid Sri Lanka has therefore designed a comprehensive project which facilitates the completion of the construction work but also encompasses a number of small works to upgrade the existing facilities. The details of the work to be undertaken will be determined through consultation with the students and teachers and they will be involved in the design and implementation of the projects as far as possible.

Mindful of the need to prevent inter-school problems and to ensure that maintenance can be undertaken locally, proposed improvements will bring the facilities at Kottagama in line with those of other schools in the district rather than surpass them. The project will enhance the learning and recreational environment of this school, which will have a significant affect on the children who attend it.