COLOMBO,Jan22, 2012 : India has promised Sri Lanka an increase in educational assistance amounting to LKRs2.5 billion in grant to deserving students. Indian Foreign Minister S.M. Krishna who was in Lanka on a four-day visit announced that this was a substantial expansion in the scholarships currently being offered by India to the Lankan students. Under the three-year programme, the number of scholarships and self-finance slots for undergraduate, masters and doctorate courses are being increased from the existing 113 slots to 270 per year. These scholarships will cover the course fee, cost of books, boarding and lodging as well as a monthly stipend to the students. “I am confident that the expanded scholarship programme will go a long way in further cementing our educational ties,” said the visiting foreign minister. “This marks a three-fold increase, and includes 120 slots for undergraduate courses, 25 seats for IT engineering, 50 slots for masters-level courses, and 40 slots for a highly-subsidised self-financing scheme,” he added. Several schemes under the initiative, launched by Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and President Mahinda Rajapaksa in 2010, would cover various categories of beneficiaries, ranging from school students to university researchers and teachers. The two leaders had agreed that India would expand its scholarship programme in Sri Lanka to assist scholars not only in regular undergraduate studies but also to pursue higher research. India also decided to select 150 deserving students, six from each district of Sri Lanka, for monthly monetary support for two-year duration under the ‘Mahatma Gandhi Scholarship Scheme’ to complete the GCE Advance Level studies. Students under this scheme will also be able to pursue higher studies under scholarships in India. The Corpus Fund of the Ceylon Estate Workers Education Trust (CEWET) has also been doubled to support the education of over 350 poor students from Sri Lanka’s Tamil majority upcountry area.
