DP Education marked a significant achievement by equipping 30,000 students with IT knowledge and skills valued at Rs. 21 billion, including 5,000 youth from the Jaffna district. These students from Jaffna join another 25,000 IT-skilled youth across five other districts: Kandy, Hambantota, Matara, Kurunegala, and Monaragala.
Certificates worth Rs. 4 billion were distributed to parents of students who completed various stages of coding and software knowledge at a crowded Muttraveli Grounds in Jaffna. These 5,000 students are affiliated with eight DP Education IT Campuses located in Jaffna at Nallur, Vaddukoddai, Tellippalai, Valvetty, Nelliady, Chavakachcheri, Chunnakam, and Kopai. These campuses are part of a network of 142 DP IT Campuses nationwide, benefiting a total of 135,000 students. Additionally, eighteen Silicon Valley IT offices associated with DP IT Campuses undertake software and web development projects.
The certification ceremony was graced by Dhammika Perera, a business leader who now serves as an SLPP Parliamentarian. The event was organized under the auspices of DP Foundation, the philanthropic arm behind DP Education IT Campuses. These campuses integrate six global platforms: CODE.org, Thunkable, Pictoblox, Microbit, COSPACES, and HTML. The curriculum, available in Sinhala, Tamil, and English, comprises 324 coding projects, each accompanied by 324 homework assignments.
The global cost of this course, excluding homework, is $7,500 or Rs. 2.5 million. The second stage includes courses in Full Stack Development and Cloud Computing offered by the University of Moratuwa. In the third stage, students have the opportunity to pursue complimentary courses provided by DP Education IT Campus in partnership with the Universities of Moratuwa, Kelaniya, and Ruhuna.
The course content is a collaborative effort between DP Education, universities, and the Sri Lanka Association for Software Services Companies (SLASSCOM), the national chamber for the knowledge and innovation industry. The first and second stages of the curriculum are accessible via smartphones, while the third and final stage requires access to a computer or laptop. The course aims to be completed within two years by regular school students (with two hours per week plus homework) and in six months by those who are out of school and can dedicate 12 hours per week.
The overarching objective of DP Education IT Campuses is to empower one million students with valuable global IT knowledge and skills over five years, at no cost to the students. This initiative represents an investment of Rs. 2.5 million per student by DP Education IT Campus, totaling Rs. 2,500 billion or $7.5 billion over the five-year period.
