Shilpa Sayura wins prestigious i4d award

The Shilpa Sayura project, initiated under the Information and Communication Technology Agency of Sri Lanka’s (ICTA) e-Society Development Initiative gained international recognition last week when it won an i4d award at the eINDIA 2007 Conference in New Delhi, India.

Shilpa Sayura was among seven ICT-based projects that won i4d Awards, for their contribution in the areas of digital literacy, electronic governance etc. The awards were given out during the valedictory session held on 2nd August, 2007. Central Informatics Organization (CIO), Government of Bahrain, and GDCO, Sudan were amongst the award winners.

The project initiated by eFusion (Pvt) Ltd as a community ICT project with the vision to empower rural students with ICT based educational systems is to improve self-learning capacity while enhancing ICTA’s Nenasala utilization through participative development. The pilot project, initiated with a grant received from ICTA’s e-SDI, aimed to create a digital educational content system in the Sinhala Language to be used initially in 20 nenasalas. This was to develop the self-learning capacity of remote, rural students. The content will eventually be deployed across the entire Nenasala network presently numbering 400 and scattered throughout the country.

Reshan Dewapura, COO, ICTA commending the achievement said, “To receive the ICT4D award at e-INDIA 2007 is very prestigious, the fact that it was only one of two projects out-side India to win an award makes it even more significant. This really is a tribute to e-Fusion, the e-Soc team at ICTA and everyone else who contributed to this effort. It goes to show that we can develop home grown, bottom-up applications that can make a difference in our rural societies.”

Shilpa Sayura provides an interactive means of self study and is particularly helpful to children in remote, rural areas who do not have access to teachers. The content includes text, supported by movie clips, photographs, animations and applet based interactive exercises, totalling over 4.7GB. Furthermore Shilpa Sayura also provides a platform on which students can interact with one another, share and exchange knowledge.

The content has been generated and reviewed by a panel of teachers from around the country. The feedback received has been used to further upgrade subject matter and improve its delivery.

“Shilpa Sayura is one of the first five projects to be funded through the e-Society Development Initiative. The fact that it is the first project to be completed and launched speaks for the dedication and commitment displayed by Niranjan. It indeed fitting that Shilpa Sayura, as the first e-SDI project to be ‘birthed’, aptly reflects the essence of this Initiative by addressing the needs and aspirations of remote rural communities,” said Chitranganie Mubarak, Programme Head, e-SDI.

Category: ICT for Development