The Institute of Certified Management Accountants of Sri Lanka, under the Visionary Leadership and guidance of Professor Lakshman R. Watawala has conducted and completed three Speech Craft programmes online via zoom during the ‘lockdown’ period for Final Year students.
Batch 16 was stalled in its’ journey as the ‘Curfew’ and lockdown struck after Session 9, with three more sessions to complete the programme.
However, the enthusiasm to continue the momentum for the speech crafters, the Course Director Dian Abeyewardene proposed to conduct the sessions online and with many uncertainties on the outcome a bold decision was taken by Professor Watawala to proceed.
This also gave confidence to the students to attend classes online as they were in two minds initially. The results were very positive with the speech crafters able to restart on April 4 and dealt with the technological challenges to complete three sessions on zoom, in preparation for the final which is normally held in the classroom and needed to wait till the lockdown.
Nonetheless, batch 16 certainly took the credit for boldly consenting to connect online to complete the course.
The CMA Administration, the Course Director and President of CMA Professor Lakshman R. Watawala was directly involved in conducting a Speech Craft program mewith 24 participants, key note presentations, Project speeches by speechcrafters, evaluations and many other segments included in a comprehensive speechcraft programme connecting participants from their homes island-wide.
The confidence to succeed given by the Course Director, commenced session 2 of batch 17 on April 15 and duly completed 11 sessions on May 8, stalling for the final meeting to be held when the lockdown situation eased.
The specialty of Batch 17 was the participation of three students from overseas two from Dubai and one from the Maldives. The inter-action, the enthusiasm and the positivity of the students attending online from Hambantota, Kegalle, Jaffna, Bandarawela, Anuradhapura, alongside overseas participation was an opportunity solely provided by the Covid-19 Pandemic.
The Final meeting of Batch 17 was conducted on July 1, observing the rules and safety measures, with facemasks and social distancing at the CMA Auditorium. The gap between the last session 11 was held online and the rehearsal for the final online on June 29.
Overall the performance was very creditable with the participants overcoming several barriers completed the programme and received the Certificates from the President of CMA Sri Lanka, Prof. Lakshman R. Watawala Founder President CMA, Immediate Past President of CMA Toastmasters Club, Shemal Fernandopulle, President CMA TMC 2020/ 2021, Mayuran Ramanathan, with restrictionsand social distancing were in attendance.
The awards presentation was conducted by the Course Director Dian Abeyewardene. Addressing the audience Prof. Watawala congratulated the participants for taking the challenge to learn online and prove to the many who felt that such a comprehensive and complicated inter-active workshop model cannot be conducted online was really possible.
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