අධ්‍යාපනය යනු රටක සංවර්ධනයේ මූලික අංගයකි.එබැවින් ගුරුවරු සංවර්ධනය කිරීම ඉදිරි පරම්පරා ගණනක සිසුන්ගේ සංවර්ධනයයි.මෙම න්‍යාය මත පදනම්ව CONTESSA ව්‍යාපෘතිය මගින් ශ්රී ලංකාවේ වර්ථමාන සහ අනාගත ගුරුවරුන් ඔවුන්ගේ සිසුන් සමග සම්බන්ධතා ඇති කර ගැනීමට අවශ්‍ය වූ මෙවලම් සහ කුසලතා ලබාදීම සහ ඊට අදාළව ගුරුවරු සවිබලගැන්වීම සිදුකරයි.
Graz විශ්වවිද්‍යාලය විසින් කරන ලද පුළුල් පර්යේෂණයක ප්‍රතිඵලයක් ලෙස ශ්රී ලංකාවේ අධ්‍යාපන ක්ෂේත්‍රයේ සංවර්ධනයට බලපාන තීරණාත්මක සාධකයක් ලෙස ගුරු අධ්‍යාපනය හඳුනාගන්නා ලදී. ගුරු අධ්‍යාපනය ලෝකයේ විශේෂ අවධානයක් යොමු වී ඇති ක්ෂේත්‍රයක් වන අතර වර්තමාන ශ්රී ලංකාවේ ඉගැන්වීමේ කාර්යයේ නිරතවන ගුරුවරුන්ගේ කුසලතා වැඩි දියුණු කිරීම මගින් පුද්ගල සහ සමාජයීය සංවර්ධනයට එය සෘජු ලෙස දායක කර ගත හැකි බව හඳුනාගෙන ඇත.
CONTESSA ව්‍යාපෘතිය අධ්‍යාපන ක්ෂේත්‍රයේ ඉගැන්වීම් කටයුතු සිදු කරන අයට පමණක් නොව අදාළ විවිධ ක්ෂේත්‍රයන්හි නියුතු පිරිස් කෙරෙහි ද අවධානය යොමු කර ඇත.
- European Sphere: The orientation towards European standards of teaching will connect Sri Lanka to international standards in their teacher training, which will help promote the flow of knowledge and ideas across borders in the future.
- National Sphere: The National Institute of Education and the Ministry of Education in Sri Lanka will acquire a comprehensive pedagogic distance-learning program for current in service teachers who lack the appropriate training background or want to develop themselves further.
- Sri Lankan Universities: New courses will be offered to supplement the existing teacher education programs at universities with formats and methods allowing for capacity building in view of the achievement of contemporary teaching skills.
- Sri Lankan Further Education Sector: A completely laid out Train-the-Trainer program will be offered in order to improve the teaching competencies of teacher educators, a basic requirement for a qualitative teacher education.
- Local and Regional Spheres: The improvement of the teaching competencies of teachers will result in a better learning situation for the students and will seek to improve the overall standard of education throughout Sri Lanka.
Professor Manjula Vithanapathirana, the National Coordinator for CONTESSA and the Dean of the Faculty of Education at the University of Colombo, recently wrote an article about the impact she feels CONTESSA will have on the Sri Lankan education system. Below is an excerpt from the article outlining the necessity of teacher education programs like CONTESSA:
Teachers cannot be technicians who merely follow the instructional guides. The need to empower the teachers to meet the challenges of any teaching-learning context is a major persisting gap in teacher development.
Teacher education is based on the theory that teachers are made, not born. Teacher education is ever-evolving and dynamic. In order to prepare teachers who are competent to face the challenges of the dynamic society, teacher education has to keep abreast of recent developments and trends. Teacher education is a continuous process. Teacher education is a life-long experience that goes from one’s initial education to retirement. (Vithanapathirana, M. 2019)
Professor Shironica Karunanayaka, the Dean of the Faculty of Education at the Open University of Sri Lanka, together with Dr. Som Naidu, wrote about the importance and impact of online educational resources like CONTESSA:
“Students, teachers and educational organizations in developing educational contexts cannot afford access to the best and most current learning resources, most of which are usually produced and distributed from the developed world in the West. Even when these resources are affordable, the most current and appropriate educational resources are often inaccessible where they are most needed.”
Karunanayaka, S. and Naidu, S. 2014
The Faculty of Education at the Open University of Sri Lanka