In collaboration with Provincial Ministry of Education, Provincial Department of Education and Kotapola Pradeshiya Sabha (PS), twenty five preschools had been selected to provide with the musical instruments required for early childhood care development activities. The provision of equipment for preschools in Kotapola is only a sub component of AGSL’s overall initiative on Early Childhood care development which includes the development of the Preschool diploma curriculum, Diploma course for officers working in early childhood care, preschool teachers training and awareness.

In Matara district, one of the most rural areas with a bigger land area is the Kotapola division. Rural poverty is more visible in this division. There is significant number of Tamil population in Kotapola division. From the overall 20.05% of the Tamil community in the division, majority are estate labours in the Tea estates. Currently there are forty-eight registered preschools while there is significant number of estate sector preschools spread throughout the area. Out of the twenty five selected preschools, six existing preschools with Tamil medium (only) are included as the benefiting preschools of the AGSL’s early childhood development initiative. These will receive the musical equipment and, the preschool teachers’ in charge of these preschools will also get the opportunity to participate in the ‘Preschool teacher training’ organised by AGSL.

The preschools in Kotapola PS cater to both Sinhala and Tamil students. However, the existing preschools are operating with the minimum facilities and the learning environment is not appealing for child learning. The basic and the essential requirements are not available in most of these preschools. According to the criteria introduced by the preschool unit of the Provincial Department of Education, there should be a minimum standard in the preschools for them to call for students for registration.

Following a request made by the Kotapola PS, AGSL came forward to support to improve situation of the preschool education in the division. As highlighted by the Kotapola PS, the preschools in the division do not have sufficient resources, proper guidance and proper training on early childhood care and development. This is mainly due to the fact that there is a need to cater to students from both Tamil and Sinhala medium. Even though the Provincial Department of Education is supporting through the preschool unit, most of the preschools are lacking the facilities and the knowledge require achieving the set standards.

The provision of musical equipment for these selected preschools is a step taken to support the Provincial Department of Education to achieve their objective of standardising the early childhood care development sector in Kotapola. This addresses one of the eight criteria, the development of the aesthetic intuition of the children, set by the department which should be essentially included in primary education.
In addition, the overall initiative will support to provide a stimulus to the rural children to attend to preschools while parents will also be more encouraged to send their children to preschools.