Sri Lanka

With a gift to Room to Read Sri Lanka, you can provide life-changing educational resources to children whose families and communities are working to overcome the significant adversities from economic, social and climate-related disasters they have faced in recent years. Every contribution goes toward the most pressing priorities, including: 

Literacy

Training future teachers to transform reading outcomes nationwide 

For an aspiring teacher, the quality of training they receive before they enter their first classroom can make a magnitude of difference — improving how well students learn, as well as the teachers’ own satisfaction and confidence in their career.

In partnership with the Ministry of Education and the National Institute of Education, Room to Read has helped revise and improve teacher training curriculum. In 2025, Room to Read will field test this new teacher training curriculum in three National Colleges of Education. The new curriculum includes our dynamic approaches for establishing and managing classroom libraries, and leading group, paired and independent reading activities for students, toward the goal of inspiring students to build positive habits of reading and learning.

We will roll out this revised curriculum to all National Colleges of Education, which train an estimated 4,000 future teachers each year. Your support will help ensure these curriculum improvements can reach more future teachers throughout Sri Lanka, improving reading skills — and habits — for generations of students.  

Strengthening learning opportunities for pre-primary students 

In Sri Lanka, especially among ethnic minorities or economically disadvantaged communities, few children have access to formal pre-primary schools, placing them at a distinct disadvantage as they enter Grade 1 without basic motor skills, such as holding a pencil, or knowledge of fundamental concepts, such as following instructions or recognizing basic numbers or letters. 

Sri Lanka’s government is increasingly focused on improving access to quality, pre-primary education and has asked Room to Read to support the development of pre-primary content and curriculum, as well as training for pre-primary teachers. Given the nascent pre-primary education in Sri Lanka, the Ministry of Education is eager to leverage Room to Read’s pre-primary approaches and materials to reach more of the youngest learners nationwide in the coming years.   

Inspiring a generation of readers 

For a young student, books are among the most important learning tools — the opportunity to turn the pages of a book, written in a familiar language, with illustrations and characters reflective of your culture and adapted for your reading level can motivate you to pick up book after book, offering more practice for your emergent reading skills.

In Sri Lanka, where far too few children have access to quality Tamil or Sinhala-language books, we have helped the government launch the National Consortium for Children’s Books. After years of advocacy and collaboration, the Consortium is now drafting national policies and standards for children’s books, based on Room to Read’s guidelines.

In addition to supporting the development of these critical national policies, which will ensure school libraries will be filled with quality books that meet a wide range of learner levels, we will facilitate workshops and courses for Sri Lankan book creators on how to develop engaging, colorful children’s books that also support students’ learning. Your support can make this work possible and help seed the development of Sri Lanka’s children’s book sector to ensure all children can cultivate a love for reading and learning.  

Gender Equality

Strengthening secondary students’ life skills and wellbeing nationwide 

In the wake of the economic crises and ongoing climate-related disasters, the Ministry of Education is increasingly focused on ensuring schools can protect students’ psycho-social and emotional well-being while building their resilience and life skills to overcome future obstacles. Toward this end, the government has engaged Room to Read as a key partner in establishing Career Guidance and Counseling Centers in all schools nationwide. These centers are intended to provide crucial support in helping adolescents develop key life skills to navigate their futures.  
 
Leveraging our life skills curriculum, Room to Read collaborated with the Ministry of Education to develop a handbook and training materials for educators. In 2025, Room to Read is working to train educators across 50 pilot schools in five provinces to establish effective counseling centers in their schools. Given the limited expertise in schools about how to effectively support adolescents’ psychosocial well-being and life skills, this work will require crucial investments to raise awareness for the importance of mental health and life skills among communities, as well as in ongoing, targeted training and support for educators to ensure they can capably provide mentorship and tailored support to adolescents.

Pending the success of the pilot in 2025, Room to Read will develop a cohort of Master Trainers in partnership with the government, who will help more schools establish and manage effective Career Guidance and Counseling Centers. Ultimately, your investment in this important work will help reach more adolescents with support and resources to ensure they can build the futures they want for themselves.