The STEAM Activity Day and Robotics Competition served as an exploration platform to over 500 children, as they eagerly engaged in many fun activities which triggered their curiosity, creativity and innovative thinking capabilities. Activities in Drama, Story Telling, Arts & Crafts, Language, Robotics, STEM and Coding; introduced the challenging subjects of Science, Technology, Engineering, Art and Mathematics, through fun activities in a manner that children could easily grasp and enjoy.

The Robotics Competition conducted by Gateway School of Computing in collaboration with My STEM Labs India and ICDL Sri Lanka, saw participation from teams representing national, private, and international schools, from all provinces of the country. The competition was organized to promote Robotics and STEM education in the country, in an interactive competitive platform, by providing students with hands-on experience to design and build programmable robots that can complete an assigned task.

Hon. (Dr.) Susil Premajayantha, Minister of Education of Sri Lanka, the Chief Guest at the occasion, congratulated the leadership of Gateway for their efforts in fostering STEAM education amongst school children. He also emphasized the importance of STEAM education that takes learners beyond classrooms to action-oriented pursuits. He further stated efforts are being directed towards giving more access to students across the Island, in the fields of science, technology, engineering, arts and mathematics. Recognizing the significance of STEAM education in building human resources, as observed in many developed nations, he stated that efforts are being made through Education reforms to bring about positive changes in the country’s school system by prioritizing these areas.

Enthusiastic students who competed in the Junior and Senior categories received their awards from the Hon Minister. Badulla Central College won the Championship in the Senior category and Gateway College Negombo were the Champions of the Junior category. Seevali Central College, Ratnapura and Gateway College, Dehiwela emerged the 1st Runners up and 2nd Runner up respectively in the Senior Category. The 1st Runner up in the Junior category was President’s College, Rajagiriya and the team from Gateway College Colombo were placed 2nd runner up, in the Junior category.

DFCC Awards for the most innovative robot designs of the Senior and Junior categories were awarded to Badulla Central College and Presidents College, Rajagiriya; respectively. Promoting girls’ involvement in STEM, the ‘best girl powered team’ was recognized and Ladies College, Colombo won this accolade.

At the onset of Ministry of Education’s plan to include Artificial Intelligence (AI) in school curricula by 2024 with a focus on robotics, machine learning and other related technologies, Gateway believes that this initiative will contribute in elevating our country’s educational standards to be in par with international standards and contributing to the achievement of the 4th Sustainable Development Goal set by the United Nations.

Many forward-thinking organizations that strive to ignite the innovative skills of the children in Sri Lanka supported this initiative.

The ICT Industry Skills Council, Sri Lanka endorsed the event. DFCC Bank, Virtusa, Eduko Pathways and Orbit Network co-sponsored the programme. Gifts were provided by Hameedias, AVI, Connex, Konnect and Taco Bell. The event was coordinated by the collective effort of BigSpark by Gateway centres, that offer a broad range of enriching programmes for young learners, teenagers, school leavers and professionals, in all areas of STEAM education; located at Borella, Colpetty, Moratuwa, Nugegoda & Kandy.

Further information on STEAM related courses offered can be obtained from BigSpark by Gateway – Borella: 011 2699642/0777 990127, Colpetty: 011 2577129/0777 990813, Nugegoda: 011 2198033 Moratuwa: 011 2641527/077 1539495, Kandy: 081 2233587/081 4475372 or visit www.bigsparkbygateway.lk

Hon. (Dr.) Susil Premajayantha, Minister of Education

Mrs. Jayanandi Dissanayake

Winners of Robotics 2024 Competition

Organisers