Idea 379 of 500. Cluster 18: Sri Lankans abroad, both directions
A graded Sinhala and Tamil curriculum and exam for children abroad, licensed to the Saturday schools and the video teachers
The mechanism, from the book
1.5 million people abroad who know how rich countries work, and who send home money and little else.
Every idea in cluster 18 uses this mechanism.
A first step
Take one Sinhala or Tamil Saturday school abroad and ask the head teacher what they lack: graded lessons, books, or a test a child can pass and show. Write the first level, lessons and the exam together, and offer it to that school for a small licence fee, with the exam marked here. Offer the same level to one teacher who teaches children abroad by video. If both pay, and a second school asks, the licence works.
- Who pays first
- A Saturday school abroad run by volunteers, or a video teacher, who wants a ready curriculum and an exam whose certificate parents will pay for.
- What leaves today
- The languages fade with each generation abroad; a curriculum and an exam written and licensed from home keep them alive and earn from Sri Lankans abroad.
The idea and the mechanism are from the book. The first step was written for this site as a suggestion; if you know a better one, say so.
The test
Does it keep value that now leaves the island, or build the proof that lets somebody else do so?
The only test any idea on this site has to pass. The four rules that go with it are here.
In the book
- Ch. SixteenThe Bridge
The institutions that could carry value back
More from cluster 18
- 361A directory of Sri Lankans abroad: who does what, where, and what they will help with, verified
- 362Return-relocation services: the school, the house, the car, the tax, in one package
- 363Sri Lanka House in London, Melbourne and Toronto: a shop, a café and a desk, the Colombo model abroad
- 364Money-transfer products that buy a specific thing at home (a course, a machine, a roof) rather than cash
- 365Investment clubs of Sri Lankans abroad that own one business each at home, with a manager on the ground
- 366Import agencies in each city with a Sri Lankan community, stocking Sri Lankan brands and nothing else
Idea 379 of the 500 in the appendix of Why Not Sri Lanka? Every one can be started by one person, one family or one small firm.