Relaunching of “Junior Achievement” (JA) initiated by the Junior Achievement Advisory Task Force Members’ Association with the Policy Development Office of the Prime Minister’s Office along with the Ministry of Education is a revolutionary step forward towards breaking the conventional teaching style prevailing in the country.
It is an initiative to build character in the young and give direction through a different yet more interactive and exciting educational technique. The primary function of a great education system is to teach and expose the youth to think intensively and critically while working in teams to achieve their ultimate goal in life. In a world where access to information and knowledge is everywhere- simply, even with a “click of a button” the primary education system of a nation must adopt and introduce innovative mediums to educate the youth before credibility of the system is lost.
The program holds a history of 100 years, over 150 countries. The JA, or once popularly known as the Young Entrepreneur Sri Lanka (YESL) was active from 1998 to 2012. During this period, the YESL program expanded from 9 schools to almost 400 schools, reaching well over 35,000 students, island-wide. The JA program was endorsed by the Ministry of Education as an extra-curricular activity. As a JA membership requirement, initially a pilot programme needs to be implemented before the national rollout (Ananda College Colombo, Royal College Colombo, Mahanama College Colombo, Sri Jayewardenepura Maha Vidyalaya Kotte, Bandaranayeka College Gampaha, Bandaranayeka Central College Veyangoda, Hindu College Colombo and St. Joseph’s College Colombo).
With the approval of Junior Achievement (JA) Asia Pacific on February 22, 2019, the Junior Achievement Advisory Task Force Members’ Association team has worked towards the successful implementation of the JA pilot programme. After obtaining the approval of the Ministry of Education on March 21, 2019, we have organised a ‘Planning Meeting on Implementing the JA Programme’ for the principals and teachers of the pilot schools, on March 29, 2019 to share knowledge about the programme.
JA’s volunteer-delivered, 9th-12th grade programs foster work-readiness, entrepreneurship and financial literacy skills, and use experiential learning to inspire students to dream big and reach their potential.
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