Starter Kit. Idea 379 of 500. Cluster 18
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.
The 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.
Ask first
- Department of Cultural Affairs. Ask whether graded teaching material in Sinhala and Tamil already exists to build on.
Check before you spend
Confirm that you own or have permission for every text in the curriculum, who marks the exam and how, and a clear licence agreement each school and teacher signs.
Find out these three numbers
- What do Saturday schools lack most: lessons, books or an exam?
- What licence fee will a school or a video teacher pay per term?
- How many Saturday schools and video teachers serve one city?
The test
Does it keep value that now leaves the island, or build the proof that lets somebody else do so?
From the appendix of Why Not Sri Lanka? by Dr Maheshika Halbeisen. The idea and the mechanism are the book's; this kit was written for the site.