Ceylon Christian Care - Projects - Education - Christian English Medium School

Ceylon Christian Care

Education

John’s Academy

In 2006 Ceylon Christian Care started together with Rev. S. Jeyanesan with the Christian English Medium School “John’s Academy” in Batticaloa. This school functioned during the first year on a temporary location. On Sept 19th 2007 the new building for this school was opened.

Why was there a need for a Christian English Medium School

Oftentimes over the past years Rev Jeyanesan in Sri Lanka raised the issue of education. He emphasized that improving education is essential and should be considered as our major next area of focus. We agreed with this. Because, after all, good basic education is the foundation for any program that aims to make a significant and lasting contribution to improving the living standard of people in a developing country. In our discussions gradually the vision emerged for what would be an unique initiative in Sri Lanka. Our vision had the following key elements:

We wanted to establish a Christian school. Christian schools rarely exist in Sri Lanka in general, and don’t exist in the Tamil area. The regular system does allow for private schools to be established - as long as they are funded privately - and give great freedom with respect to the educational content. This is a major opportunity.

We wanted to establish a quality school. In general quality of education at current schools is poor, especially in the Tamil area. This has major consequences for the students. To give one example: it is almost impossible for even the best Tamil students to get admitted to universities, because the admission exams are taken in English, and the level of their English is such that it becomes almost impossible to get through these exams with good results. Therefore our school will put great emphasis on teaching English. Also, the school will have a top-notch IT infrastructure and will provide excellent IT training. Both skills, English and IT, are in great demand in Sri Lanka, and are almost a guarantee for a job.

We wanted a school that is accessible for everyone, no matter how poor or rich. We didn’t envision a school just for poor people. We also didn’t envision a school for the elite. We wanted a school that admits everybody, and where people pay based on what they are able to pay.

We wanted a school that differentiates based on level and capabilities of students. Current schools in Sri Lanka provide the same program to everybody. All training is theoretical. There is no practice oriented vocational training for students with limited learning capabilities. This is the first school that integrates vocational training with theoretical training, and where students follow a different program depending on their capabilities.

We wanted a school that has international connections. This will be a school that is well aware of what is happening in the rest of the world, and has exchange programs with other (Christian) schools in The Netherlands and the US/Canada. Some of the best students will get the opportunity to study abroad.

We have started to work with some schools in The Netherlands and US/Canada. These schools contributed with the development of the overall concepts. They will also support this school in various ways.

We already have an extremely well-functioning vocational training centre (VTC) and we study how to integrate and how it can become part of the overall concept. The primary school is build on the same compound were also the VTC is located.

Let’s take a step back, why have Ceylon Christian Care taken this initiative:

1. This school will help to create a well-educated community

2. Children will get good quality education. We will use high quality materials and the better teachers.

3. Children will get English Medium and Computer education (Today the guarantee to get the better job !)

4. Children will get international oriented education (partnerships with school in Europe and North America)

5. This school will be integrated with the VTC in Batticaloa. Study differentiation will be possible after having finished the first 6 years (This is unique for Sri Lanka).

6. As a next step we like to link a micro credit system to this project, to motivate children who leave the school to start own business.

7. This is the basis for the rehabilitation and development of this area

This school will also help to create a Christian educated community:

1. Children will hear about the gospel when they are young

2. This is the best age to reach them

3. There will be contact with these children for several years

4. Boys and girls can be reached

5. Through these children also the parents and family will hear about the gospel

Which children do we focus on

This project started with the children of the orphan homes in Batticaloa, Periyaneelavanai and Kiran. In near future we also like to open the school for other children from the area. This will be the first private school in this area and we expect that when we succeed in providing high quality education there will be many parents who like to send their children to this school and who will be prepared to pay for this.

The children come from different religions (from the homes and from the area). This project allows us to tell about the gospel to all these children.

How many children do we target on

We have started with a school which can handle 400 children. The project is designed in such a way that we can double the size in an easy way when this is required.

Management of the new school

We have established a formal non-government organization to govern the school. This project is under the responsibility of Rev. Jeyanesan. He has appointed an experienced senior manager in managing this school. Local experts (from Sri Lanka) as well as foreign experts will be involved in the education programs. Missionaries will be encouraged to participate.