ComBank’s effort to shape digital Sri Lanka reaches landmark with 250th IT lab donation

The Commercial Bank of Ceylon has donated its 250th IT Lab to a school in Maharagama, reaching a milestone in the Bank’s flagship community initiative to take digital literacy to the grassroots in support of national development goals.

The latest beneficiary of this nationally-scaled programme is the 44-year-old President’s College in the Sri Jayewardenepura Education Zone, which has a student population of more than 3200. The fully-equipped and furnished IT Lab will greatly aid the GCE Advanced Level students following General Information Technology (GIT) and Information and Communications Technology (ICT) subjects, as well as GCE Ordinary Level students learning ICT, the Bank said.

With this latest donation, the number of students benefitted by the 250 IT labs gifted by the bank to date is estimated to exceed 230,000. Notably, Commercial Bank provides assistance through its extensive branch network to maintain and upgrade these computer labs when necessary, to ensure that the facilities would benefit several batches of students.

The milestone IT Lab was formally declared open by Commercial Bank’s Chairman Professor Ananda Jayawardane accompanied by the Bank’s Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer, Sanath Manatunge, Director Raja Senanayake and Chief Financial Officer Nandika Buddhipala. It was funded by the Bank’s CSR Trust under this long-running corporate social responsibility programme to elevate digital literacy rates in the country.

Commenting on the 250th IT lab donation, Commercial Bank’s Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer Sanath Manatunge said: “We have been consistently working towards nurturing a technologically savvy future generation, not just through donations of equipment but by investing in IT education training as well. While supporting the digital learning aspirations of students, our IT education initiatives are also aligned with the country’s Sustainable Development Goals, one of which is to ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for everyone.”