Education is a global priority of Save the Children. We have contributed to the education sector in Sri Lanka in both emergency and development contexts.
Food for Education and Child Nutrition
With funds from USDA’s McGovern-Dole International Food for Education and Child Nutrition Program, we have contributed to improving literacy and nutrition while reducing the short-term hunger of school-age children through the Food for Education and Child Nutrition Project.
As of early 2023, the Food for Education and Child Nutrition Project support towards the government’s School Meal Programme reached over 95,000 children in 835 schools across the country. During the pandemic, the project also conducted ‘Take Home Ration’ distributions to benefit over 100,000 children in more than 800 schools. This project aims to support the holistic wellbeing of school children, which includes constructing 26 completed inclusive latrines to benefit over 6000 children in 7 districts in Sri Lanka.
Literacy Boost
One of the key goals of the Food for Education and Child Nutrition Project is to improve literacy and nutrition while reducing hunger of school-age children.
To achieve this, the project is working collaboratively with the Ministry of Education and National Institute of Education (NIE) to adapt Save the Children's signature literacy boost model to strengthen the existing early-grade literacy instruction.
Through this approach, the project is also conducting teacher professional development for 916 teachers in 140 schools, establishing print rich reading environments in classrooms and engaging children in reading activities,whilst building the capacity of parents to support their children's literacy and reading skills.
With the support of Dubai Cares Foundation, we contributed to improving teacher competencies to support children’s learning and literacy, producing evidence to develop effective reading pedagogy, and strengthening government policies to reflect improved literacy teacher training curriculum.