The government has financed a sum of US$ 40,000/- to strengthen readiness of Primary Education Teachers of Palestinian National Authority (PNA).

A ceremony was held on November 9 at the Representative Office of Sri Lanka in PNA to inaugurate the second stage of the project. Representative of Sri Lanka in PNA Dr. T. Jayasinghe, Director General for the Projects Jihad Draidi, and Director of Special Education from the Ministry of Education and Higher Education of PNA Ms. Aisha Bekir, participated at the ceremony.

At the ceremony Dr. T. Jayasinghe said that President Mahinda Rajapaksa is supportive of the Palestinian cause. Accordingly, the Government of Sri Lanka signed an MoU with the Ministry of Education & Higher Education of PNA to grant a financial assistant package of US$ 40,000/- for organizing training workshops to strengthen readiness of Primary Education Teachers in Palestine.

He also said that first the installment of US$ 20,000/- for the above project was already made and he is satisfied with the activities implemented by utilizing this amount and hope that the goals of the project will be achieved with the 2nd installment of US$ 20,000/- which was made last week. Dr. Jayasinghe also requested the Ministry officials to submit the final progress report in order to forward to the Sri Lankan authorities, in terms of the MoU.

Mr. Jihad Diraidi, DG Projects thanked the Government of Sri Lanka for the financial support. He also thanked the Representative and his staff for the action taken to support the project. He also explained the activities already completed by the Ministry under this program.

Ms. Aisha Bekir, Director of Special Education said that the Ministry of Education is going to implement the first aid courses and diagnosis courses for the disabled children who are at home or in kindergarten. She further said that educational games made of raw materials of the environment and diversity training materials will be given in the training workshops in order to develop the skills of kindergarten children.

She extended her thanks to all who contributed to the completion of this work.