Sri Lanka children mainly in rural areas will get an opportunity to learn English from American volunteer teachers very soon after a lapse of over ten years.
The first batch of 30 American Peace Corps Volunteers will arrive in Sri Lanka in late 2019.
They will undergo three months of comprehensive cultural, language and technical training before they are given their assignments to serve for two years in rural and urban schools.
Education Minister Akila Viraj Kariyawasam and US Ambassador in Sri Lanka Alaina Teplitz held discussions on arrangements to restart US Peace Corps mission in the land.
In 2016, the Government of Sri Lanka invited Peace Corps to return to work and assist in furthering the country’s development goals. A new bilateral agreement to re-establish the program was signed in February 2018.
Secretary to the Ministry of Education Sunil Hettiarachchi said that this programme was started in 2012 and some of the US Peace Corps volunteer teachers were assigned to teach students in Colombo schools including Royal and Thurston colleges at that time.
The current support for English teaching, he stated, would unlock the doors of opportunity for all Sri Lankans.
Several students who have learnt English from American volunteer teachers them at that time are still recalling their happy memories of engaging in extracurricular activities introduced by to leading schools by them at that time.
Peace Corps volunteers were present in Sri Lanka from 1962 to 1998. The Peace Corps Crisis Corps, now Peace Corps Response, also assisted in recover efforts following the 2004 tsunami.
The US Peace Corps was founded by President John F. Kennedy in 1961 and it has a long history of service in Sri Lanka.
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