Room to Read Sri Lanka

Room to Read Sri Lanka Room to Read seeks to transform the lives of millions of children by focusing on developing literacy

01/09/2026

Come together to .
Together, we can make room for more books.
More learning.
And more opportunity.
➡️ roomtoread.org/make-room

27/08/2026

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📢Strengthening Counselling Teacher Capacity in Sri Lanka’s North Western ProvinceForty counselling teachers from selecte...
26/08/2026

📢Strengthening Counselling Teacher Capacity in Sri Lanka’s North Western Province

Forty counselling teachers from selected schools across Sri Lanka’s North Western Province strengthened their knowledge and skills through an interactive capacity-building programme in August 2026, as the national Mentoring Scale-Up initiative moves closer to schools.

Following engagement with the North Western Provincial Department of Education, the programme focused on strengthening counselling teachers’ capacity to apply mentoring approaches within school counselling and provide more responsive support to students’ life skills, wellbeing and development.

Through interactive, activity-based sessions, practical learning and open dialogue with representatives of the Ministry of Education and senior provincial education officials, participants explored how mentoring approaches can be effectively integrated and sustained within the provincial education system.

Central to this effort is a Training of Trainers, partnership model, designed to strengthen the North Western Province’s own pool of resource persons who can support future capacity-building and implementation. The programme brought together expertise from the Ministry of Education, North Western Provincial Department of Education, Room to Read Sri Lanka, and invited subject experts to build this local capacity.

This represents an important step towards provincial ownership and sustainability. The North Western Provincial Department of Education has demonstrated its commitment to taking the initiative forward, including a willingness to mobilise its own financial resources for future capacity-building. Room to Read Sri Lanka supports this transition by providing technical expertise and strengthening the Province’s resource pool, with the longer-term intention of enabling provincial structures to take the approach forward within their own education system.

The initiative builds on work begun in 2023 through Room to Read’s Girls’ Education Program, in partnership with the Ministry of Education’s Co-Curricular, Guidance and Counselling Branch. Drawing on Room to Read’s Mentoring and Life Skills Education experience, the approach has been informed by more than two years of implementation, research and learning across five provinces and contributes to the Ministry’s wider framework for strengthening School Counselling and Career Guidance (C2) Centres.

In April 2026, this collaboration reached a significant milestone when the Ministry of Education nationally launched the Mentoring Scale-Up Pilot Program, signalling the transition towards broader implementation.

The progress in the North Western Province demonstrates an important pathway for sustainability: building local expertise through a Training of Teachers model, strengthening education-system ownership, mobilising provincial resources and enabling the Province to take the work forward.

World Change Starts with Educated Children.®

From Planning to Practice: Advancing a Culture of Reading through Teacher EducationIn our previous update, we shared an ...
15/08/2026

From Planning to Practice: Advancing a Culture of Reading through Teacher Education

In our previous update, we shared an important milestone in our journey with the Ministry of Education and the National Institute of Education (NIE): the approval of the Teaching Reading curriculum and our next step — preparing teacher educators to take it forward within Sri Lanka’s National Colleges of Education.

That planned next step has now moved into action.

From 1–5 August 2026, the inaugural Sinhala-medium residential programme, “Pedagogical Foundations for a Reading Culture,” was conducted at the National Institute of Education, Meepe. The five-day programme brought together teacher educators from Hapitigam and Wayamba National Colleges of Education, equipping them with the knowledge, practical approaches and resources needed to implement the newly developed curriculum and activity guide within pre-service teacher education.

The programme represents the transition from years of collaborative curriculum development to implementation — an important step towards embedding evidence-based reading instruction within the preparation of Sri Lanka’s future teachers.

Education specialists from the NIE, National Colleges of Education, and Room to Read Sri Lanka, who collaboratively developed the curriculum and activity guide, served as resource persons during the programme, bringing together technical expertise and practical perspectives on strengthening reading instruction.

The programme was further enriched by contributions from Professor Bimali Indraratne of the General Sir John Kotelawala Defence University and Professor W. M. M. Weerasinghe of the University of Kelaniya, alongside senior representatives of the NIE, Ministry of Education and Room to Read Sri Lanka. Discussions reinforced the importance of reading in language development, critical thinking, lifelong learning and educational achievement.

At the conclusion of the programme, participating teacher educators received certificates, while the “Pedagogical Foundations for a Reading Culture” activity guide was formally handed over to the Chief Commissioner of the Teacher Education Branch of the Ministry of Education, Mrs. Iroshini Paranagama—marking another important step in taking the curriculum from development into practice.

The momentum continued from 8–12 August 2026, when the programme was extended to the Tamil and English mediums, bringing teacher educators from Jaffna National College of Education – Kopay.

Together, these programmes mark an important transition: from developing and approving a national teacher education curriculum to building the capacity required to put it into practice.

The learning generated through implementation will help inform the programme’s future direction, with the longer-term ambition of expanding the approach across 20 National Colleges of Education.

From an initial Reading Camp in 2018, through curriculum development and approval, to preparing the teacher educators who will equip future generations of teachers, this journey demonstrates the value of sustained technical collaboration.

For Room to Read Sri Lanka, it is part of a broader commitment to strengthening education systems so that effective reading instruction can reach more teachers, more classrooms and, ultimately, more children across Sri Lanka.

World Change Starts with Educated Children.®

👧🏻 Supporting student wellbeing begins long before challenges emerge—it begins with equipping young people with the skil...
08/08/2026

👧🏻 Supporting student wellbeing begins long before challenges emerge—it begins with equipping young people with the skills to navigate life. 👦🏻

Across the world, evidence continues to show that life skills education plays a vital role in helping adolescents build confidence, strengthen relationships, and make informed decisions.

At Room to Read Sri Lanka, we are turning global expertise into locally relevant solutions.

Our recent Grade 7 and Grade 8 Co-Education Life Skills Education Curriculum Contextualization Workshop brought together the technical expertise of our Country Office PDTA Girls' Education Program team and the practical experience of our field practitioners to contextualize the global curriculum for Sri Lanka's education system. The curriculum was contextualized for both Sinhala and Tamil medium implementation, with the workshop focusing on adapting content to local realities, reviewing how its technical framework could be effectively operationalized within schools, and refining activities to ensure they are practical, relevant, and meaningful for Sri Lankan adolescents.

Throughout the process, technical expertise from our Country Office team and implementation insights from field colleagues combined to strengthen the curriculum for local delivery.

Building on the successful Grade 6 contextualization completed in June, this milestone paves the way for the rollout of Room to Read Sri Lanka's Standard Girls' Education Program Co-Education curriculum across Grades 6–8 from 2027.

In line with Room to Read's global strategy, the programme will extend life skills education to both girls and boys, helping more young people develop the confidence, resilience, and decision-making skills they need to thrive.

Because when learning reflects students' realities, it does more than strengthen classrooms—it helps shape healthier, more resilient futures.

World Change Starts with Educated Children.®

#𝐥𝐢𝐟𝐞𝐬𝐤𝐢𝐥𝐥𝐬

📖Strong readers begin with strong teachers.What does it take to build a nation of confident readers? It starts by equipp...
31/07/2026

📖Strong readers begin with strong teachers.

What does it take to build a nation of confident readers?

It starts by equipping teachers with the knowledge and skills to teach reading effectively.

Room to Read Sri Lanka is proud to mark an important milestone in its long-standing partnership with the Teacher Education Branch of the Ministry of Education and the National Institute of Education—the approval of a Teaching Reading curriculum for pre-service teacher education, supported by the publication The Pedagogical Foundation for a Reading Culture.

This achievement is the result of years of collaboration, bringing together government leadership, technical expertise, and evidence-based literacy practices to strengthen teacher education and improve learning outcomes for generations of children.

📸 Some of these photos take us down memory lane, capturing key moments from a journey that began in 2018 and led to this important milestone.

Read the full article https://tinyurl.com/y7cjsxbx to learn how this partnership evolved, the journey behind the curriculum's development, and what lies ahead as the programme is piloted before being rolled out across all 20 National Colleges of Education in 2028.

World Change Starts with Educated Children.®

From National Launch to Action: Strengthening Student Wellbeing in Sri Lankan Schools For nearly two decades, Room to Re...
25/07/2026

From National Launch to Action: Strengthening Student Wellbeing in Sri Lankan Schools

For nearly two decades, Room to Read has worked alongside national and provincial education partners in Sri Lanka, contributing technical expertise in literacy, girls’ education and life skills.

Building on work initiated in 2023 through Room to Read’s Girls’ Education Program, in partnership with the Ministry of Education’s Co-Curricular, Guidance and Counselling Branch, the Ministry nationally launched the Mentoring Scale-Up Pilot Project on 20 April 2026. The launch was attended by Prime Minister Hon. Dr. Harini Amarasuriya, while Room to Read was represented by Mr. Michael Bowers, Chief Program Implementation Officer.

The scale-up is built on the foundation of Room to Read’s Mentoring and Life Skills Education work. Informed by more than two years of pilot implementation, research and learning across five provinces, the refined programme integrates these approaches into the Ministry’s wider framework for strengthening School Counselling and Career Guidance (C2) Centres.

The programme has now expanded to the Northern, Uva, North Central and North Western Provinces. Ahead of the teacher training, orientation sessions were conducted for school principals, In-Service Advisors, and provincial and zonal education officials to help create an enabling environment for implementation. The first five-day residential workshop subsequently brought together 37 counselling teachers.

Together, three workshops are expected to pave the way for building the capacity of Sinhala- and Tamil-medium counselling teachers and strengthening C2 Centres across 100 schools—helping more students feel safe, heard and equipped to navigate life’s challenges.

World Change Starts with Educated Children.®

#𝐥𝐢𝐟𝐞𝐬𝐤𝐢𝐥𝐥𝐬

16/07/2026

In the rush to fill a critical gap of well-trained educators, many countries are lowering standards, often leaving new teachers with little or no training.
Our proven expertise in educator training and coaching means Room to Read is uniquely positioned to build instruction skills among current and future educators and community members.
See our core competencies in action in our 2025 annual report: https://www.roomtoread.org/2025-annual-report

✨GEP Mentoring Scale-Up Outcome Study: Evidence Driving National Systems StrengtheningWe brought together leaders from t...
24/03/2026

✨GEP Mentoring Scale-Up Outcome Study: Evidence Driving National Systems Strengthening

We brought together leaders from the Ministry of Education, Ministry of Health, National Child Protection Authority, and provincial education authorities to share findings from the GEP Mentoring Scale-Up Outcome Study.

This milestone reflects a two-year journey from formative research in 2023, to pilot implementation (Sept 2024–Sept 2025), and the outcome study conducted in late 2025, co-led with the Ministry of Education.

The workshop was graced by Additional Secretary (Co-curricular & Primary Education Development), Ms. Udara Dikkumbura, whose guidance ensured strong collaboration with the Ministry’s Research Division throughout the study.

Co-facilitated with the Ministry’s Co-curricular, Guidance and Counselling Unit, key insights include:

• Stronger psychosocial wellbeing through mentoring, life skills, and structured support
• The value of cross-sector collaboration in addressing children’s wellbeing needs
• The importance of data-driven adaptation aligned with national priorities

These findings will directly inform Sri Lanka’s national school counselling and career guidance strengthening guidelines, launching on 20 April 2026 in partnership with Room to Read Sri Lanka.

World Change Starts with Educated Children®

20/03/2026

Children’s libraries are often underestimated. They shouldn’t be. 📖

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