FCCISL takes up teaching of languages

The most volatile issue in Sri Lanka today is the escalating ethnic strife that has engulfed the entire country and it now hurts every aspect of life in the country.

Since its eruption, so many individuals and associations untiringly worked to stave the menace, and very importantly some have worked at the grass roots level, which have indeed been successful, though they were not seen outwardly.

The Federation of Chambers of Commerce and Industry of Sri Lanka (FCCISL) a collection of businessmen and industrialists also have been striving hard to penetrate into the core of the issue to defuse tension at least in the business environment.

FCCISL have floated a project “Business for Peace Initiative”. It not only arranged interaction between prominent personalities in politics with the business community, but also involved in practical and tangible activities such Back to Business programme, which was aimed to resurrect the businesses that were affected by the conflict.

The latest of the series of programmes initiated by the FCCISL” Business for

Peace Initiative” is the teaching of the official languages that would certainly create an impact on peace.

The programme expects to teach either Sinhala or Tamil to the business community as the case may be in 10 districts through their Regional Chambers and ably assisted by the Official Languages Department by providing competent instructors.

The districts involved would be Puttalam, Anuradhapura, Vavuniya, Polonnaruwa, Ampara, Batticaloa, Manar, Jaffna and Trincomalee

Anuradhapura Chamber realised that lack of knowledge of respective languages has been a hindrance to communicate and it affected peace and business.

Thus, they proposed that teaching of languages would be vitally important to achieve peace. The suggestion was well taken up and all possible avenues were studied and the project was launched.

Sinhala would be studied by the business community in the predominantly Tamil areas and Tamil would be studied by the business community in the predominantly Sinhala speaking areas which would eventually create a bridge connecting the two communities, a major step towards achieving peace.

Secretary General/CEO of FCCISL Samantha Abewickrama said that the Official Languages Department has agreed to provide competent trained instructors in the two languages and also to prepare necessary curriculum and also to provide necessary text books.

He said that the course would extend to 108 hours teaching and at the end of the Course, the competence would be tested and a certificate would also be issued. It would be a comprehensive learning experience that would enable the participants to read and understand the language they study.

The course is spread over a period of six months, covering 18 hours per month. The course was already started in Anuradhapura, Trincomalee, Batticaloa and Mannar at the beginning of November.

Steps have also been finalised to started the Course in the balance selected areas.

Director Membership Services, FCCISL, B L Ramanayake said that altogether they expect to teach the languages to 1,000 business people and thus each district 100 persons would participate. Each class would consist of 20 participants.