Successful Sri Lanka project RIERP has come to an end

In December 2010 a project considered "The Number 1 Project amongst the Sida funded projects in Sri Lanka during the period 2005 - 2010" will come to an end. However, it has brought about a new feeling of participation by the tea estate community which will set a new standard in school maintenance in Sri Lanka. The project has been developed and monitored by Sipu International since its inception.

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In Sri Lanka there are major disparities in the standards between schools.  The disadvantaged schools are generally found in tea plantation areas attended by the Tamil people, rural localities and urban slums.  The districts with plantations have ill-equipped schools due to the historical low attention paid to schools on the tea plantations. When the education was made compulsory by law, the tea plantations complied with the legal requirement by providing minimum and sub-standard facilities.

The plantation schools were not integrated to the national system until 1977 when almost all the plantation schools were integrated. However the administration of the plantation schools is still done by another ministry than the National Ministry of Education.

When the Central Government initiated integration educational reform process they were confronted with a situation of an enormous backlog on schools, facilities and lack of teachers in the tea plantation areas. The government sought external donor assistance for the development of these schools.

The Ministry of Community Development, which was now entrusted with the task of developing the Plantation Schools, requested international support for the provision of the following;

    Infrastructure facilities to meet the demand of an increasing school population and the new educational structure
    The rehabilitation and thereafter the continuums maintenance of the Plantation Schools.

SIPU International was selected by Sida to carry out an evaluation of the project based which resulted on a soft loan was provided by Sida (SEK 45 000 000)
The monitoring of the entire programme also became the task of Sipu International. The monitoring team consisted of both expatriate and local consultants under Sipu guidance.

The Project seeks to provide the required support for rehabilitation of the project identified schools and to provide additional space needed to properly implement the new introduced Primary Education Reform.
The programme included a massive training programme in preventive maintenance and the proper upkeep of the school facilities. A maintenance Manual was developed by the Central Implementation Unit in cooperation with the expatriate consultants.