The kindergarten in Sri Lanka is called preschool. During this time children already learn math, writing and reading in tamil, singhalese and english. These are very different styles of language.
Attending preschool is not govermentaly funded and must be paid solely by the parents. For many parents it is not possible to raise the funds, therefore will those children already be disadvantaged by reaching primary school. Lanka-Help wants to provide a better schoolstart for those children.
Province Uva
Lankahelp has been supporting kindergartens in Monaragala, the largest town in the province of Uva with a population of around 46,000, since July 2015. In the beginning there were two kindergartens. Lankahelp now supports 10 kindergartens in Monaragala and one kindergarten each in Koslanda, Nagastenna and Ampitikanda. Between 300 and 350 children attend these kindergartens.
Lankahelp pays the teachers salaries and all running costs such as paper, coloured pencils, annual excursions, gifts for various festivals such as Children’s Day, Christmas and Sri Lanka New Year (which is celebrated in April). The cost of building a playground for each kindergarten was also covered by Lankahelp.
The parents of the kindergarten children are mostly workers and have to leave the house at around 4.30 am and only get home at around 4.00 pm. As the children don’t have anything to eat for most of the day, Lanka Help was asked to cover the cost of the food for these children. Some of the food is cooked and distributed by mothers or cooks. Lankahelp has agreed to cover these costs for the kindergartens.
Kimbissa
The kindergarten in Kimbissa is Lanka-Help’s first project. We built this kindergarten and a playground back in 1990. In the meantime, the kindergarten has been enlarged and new furniture has been built.
In addition to the electricity and all repair costs, Lanka-Help also covers the wages of the two teachers, as well as all running costs such as paper, coloured pencils, annual excursions, gifts for various celebrations such as Children’s Day, Christmas and Sri Lanka New Year (which is celebrated in April).
We also pay for the children’s transport to and from school in a shared taxi. Currently 18 children attend this school.
Visits to the Kindergartens in 2024
Kindergartens – Ampitikanda, Koslanda, Kimbissa/Sigiriya, Nagastenna and Monaragala
We attend all 14 kindergartens. Last year, we informed the kindergarten teachers that we would be cutting their salaries by 20% from 1 January 2024 to save money and that they would have to collect the difference from the children’s parents. As it turned out, this was a hasty decision.
Due to the catastrophic economic situation in the country, it was not possible for the parents to raise LKR 500 (approx. CHF 1.50) per month each to send their children to kindergarten. As a result, most children were no longer able to attend kindergarten and had to stay at home. The teachers also ran out of money at the end of the month. The primary school teachers in Monaragala let us know that the children who are unable to attend kindergarten are already severely disadvantaged in the 1st grade. We decided to pay their full salaries again. We hope that all parents will now send their children to kindergarten again.
Kimbissa
We have to realise that only 18 children are attending classes this year (last year there were 39 children). Here too, many parents were unable to afford the CHF 1.50 per month and stopped sending their children to kindergarten. Here we will also be paying full wages again with immediate effect.
