In the 75 years since independence, Sri Lanka had to face three terrible and bloody armed struggles. That was the 1971 rebellion, the 88-89 rebellion and the war in the north. Lakhs of precious young lives were lost to the country and billions of US dollars that could have been used for the development of the country were also wasted. The root cause of these armed struggles was youth unrest. A number of reasons, including unemployment, contributed to the discontent of the youth. As a society, our recent history bears witness to the fact that whenever that youthful discontent has been pushed beyond tolerance, it has erupted. Higher education opportunities are extremely limited for children who come out of school after 13 years of schooling. The country’s university system, which has many non-job-oriented courses, is churning out thousands of unemployed graduates every year. Due to the current economic crisis, the factories established in the villages are also closing down one by one. Hardly any new factories are opening. Agriculture is also facing many problems. A difficult situation has been created for the young man who grinds the earth with the ugly hoe to fulfill his needs with the money he gets from it. The situation is more serious because those requirements are also becoming more complex day by day. Facing the severe economic crisis of 2022 as a country, the country is showing a way to recover, but even today it is not clear through which sector we are trying to earn the amount of foreign exchange that our country needs. Young people are trying to leave the country in large numbers. Even that is not easy.

DP Education IT Campus

It is in such a context that the DP Education IT Campus program is extremely important for the country. The purpose of the DP Education IT Campus project, which is being implemented according to the concept of Mr. Dhammika Perera, is to open the way for 10 lakh jobs in the field of information technology for the country’s children in the future. This program, which was started as DP Coding School by imparting computer programming language knowledge to children, has now been developed into an IT campus program that provides artificial intelligence and robotics education.

Education opportunities for 40,000 in six months

The DP Education IT Campus program completed six months on August 2. During those six months, 53 DP Education IT campus centers have been set up in various parts of the island, mainly around temples. Through that, the number of students receiving computer language education exceeds 40,000. Generally, only 40,000 students can receive higher education in all subjects including arts through the public university system of Sri Lanka. Accordingly, it goes without saying that the progress made by the DP Education program in six months is excellent. On the other hand, the establishment of DP Education IT campus centers in connection with the ‘village temple’ is also useful for the country and the society in several ways. The people of the villages were distancing from the temple. But through the DP Education IT Campus program, a very strong relationship is now being established between the villagers and the village temple. It has a very positive effect on the spiritual development of the sons and daughters of the village as well as the harmony of the village.

The goal of the DP Education IT Campus Program is to establish DP Education IT Campus Centers in every divisional secretariat in the island by 2025. There, through the DP Education YouTube channel, school children will have the opportunity to show high results in their school education by taking courses in Mathematics, Science, English and other subjects. Also, young people can already study a course for the English Language Proficiency IELTS exam as well as a Japanese language course on YouTube and an Italian language course is also going to be introduced in the future. Through the DP Education program, efforts are being made to take this computer language knowledge to remote villages where there is no internet, no proper telephone signal, and no computer. After taking the basic course of the DP Coding School program, these children will be able to study the full stack developer course of the University of Moratuwa online remotely from their villages. Also, DP Education program has already created a course on Business Resource Management in collaboration with University of Kelaniya and a course in Data Science in collaboration with Ruhunu University. Lakhs of job opportunities are open to the students studying these courses in Sri Lanka as well as in different countries of the world.

A goal for a generation that had no goal

A generation that was supposed to grow up without a goal now has a goal. That is the goal of saving Sri Lanka from this economic crisis by developing the country through jobs in the computer sector. The DP Education team led by Mr. Dhammika Perera has been able to make it not just a concept but already a reality. School-aged children do not want to enter their youth without knowing the way. A clear path is already being prepared for them.