Commercial Bank of Ceylon recently sponsored a math support programme benefitting 130 students in four schools in the Mullaitivu area in collaboration with the Sasnaka Sansada Foundation which conducted the programme.
Aligned with the Bank’s education-centric corporate social responsibility agenda, this two-day residential programme titled “Sasnaka Sansada Ganitha Saviya” was conducted in line with the essential teaching concepts of the Ministry of Education.
Students from Sampath Nuwara National School, Kalyanipura Vidyalaya, Paranagama Wewa Vidyalaya and Ehetugaswewa Vidyalaya in which there is a dearth of mathematics teachers, were part of this math support programme.
Conducted in response to a request made by the Maths branch of the Ministry of Education, the objective of this programme was to increase the level of achievement of the students and motivate them, thereby positively affecting the examination results of these schools, in which there is an 80% fail rate in mathematics at the GCE Ordinary Level.
The Math Lab concept was launched in 2015 by the Commercial Bank of Ceylon to stimulate and develop the mathematical and analytical skills of school children in Sri Lanka. Inspired by the results achieved by the ‘Math Lab’ concept pioneered at the Miyenakandura government school, Passara, by former teacher and innovative learning materials designer Mr Hengodage Dharmasiri, the Commercial Bank initiative has so far benefitted approximately 5,000 students across the country.
Sasnaka Sansada, the organising body of the recent math support programme, is a forum of professionals in a social service organisation committed to uplift talents, develop skills and the giftedness of the children of Sri Lanka. Its “Sasnaka Sansada Ganitha Saviya” initiative is a successful national programme aimed at reducing the level of failures in the Sri Lankan syllabus and improving the level of achievement in the mathematics field. In the past year, it has launched 150 math programmes across Sri Lanka.
The only Sri Lankan Bank to be ranked among the world’s top 1000 banks for eight years consecutively, Commercial Bank operates a network of 263 branches and 796 ATMs in Sri Lanka. The Bank has won more than 30 international and local awards in 2016 and 2017 and 20 international awards in the first eight months of 2018.
Commercial Bank’s overseas operations encompass Bangladesh, where the Bank operates 19 outlets; Myanmar, where it has a Representative Office in Yangon and a Microfinance company in Nay PyiTaw; the Maldives, where the Bank has a fully-fledged Tier I Bank with a majority stake; and Italy, where the Bank operates its own money transfer service.