Sept 19, Colombo: The Commercial Bank of Ceylon has donated its 250th IT Lab to a school in Maharagama, reaching a milestone in the Bank’s flagship community initiative to take digital literacy to the grassroots in support of national development goals.

The latest beneficiary of this nationally-scaled program is the 44-year-old President’s College in the Sri Jayewardenepura Education Zone, which has a student population of more than 3200. The fully-equipped and furnished IT Lab will greatly aid the GCE Advanced Level students following General Information Technology (GIT) and Information and Communications Technology (ICT) subjects, as well as GCE Ordinary Level students learning ICT, the Bank said.

The milestone IT Lab was formally declared open by Commercial Bank’s Chairman Professor Ananda Jayawardane accompanied by the Bank’s Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer, Mr Sanath Manatunge, Director Raja Senanayake and Chief Financial Officer Mr Nandika Buddhipala. It was funded by the Bank’s CSR Trust under this long-running corporate social responsibility program to elevate digital literacy rates in the country.

Commenting on the 250th IT lab donation, Commercial Bank’s Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer Mr Sanath Manatunge said: “We have been consistently working towards nurturing a technologically savvy future generation, not just through donations of equipment but by investing in IT education training as well. While supporting the digital learning aspirations of students, our IT education initiatives are also aligned with the country’s Sustainable Development Goals, one of which is to ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for everyone.”

In the sphere of corporate social responsibility, Commercial Bank’s largest contribution is towards digital technology education in Sri Lanka. The Bank has donated IT labs across all 25 districts of Sri Lanka and most are in rural areas of the country. The Bank has also supported a project to set up 115 classrooms that focus on the STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths) subjects. Additionally, the Bank was a key partner in the national Smart Schools initiative where 165 schools were equipped with digital learning facilities. The Bank’s “Sipnena” online portal contains digitized school curriculum content, complete with practical videos and presentations to facilitate easy learning for students.