The Swami Vipulananda Institute of Aesthetic Studies in Batticaloa hosted the Eastern Province program recently, which is run by the President’s Fund to recognize exceptional achievers at the district level in the 2023/2024 GCE Advanced Level Examination.

The event was attended by Member of Parliament Kanthasamy Prabu, Eastern University Vice Chancellor Professor Pararajasingham Peratheepan, Batticaloa District Secretary, J. J. Muralidaran, senior officials from the President’s Fund, Eastern Province public officials, security force chiefs, parents, and students.

Speaker Jagath Wickramaratne presided over the gathering and 360 students, 10 from each of the six subject streams in the districts of Ampara, Batticaloa, and Trincomalee, were given an incentive payment of 100,000 rupees and certificates each for the 2023 and 2024 GCE Advanced Level Examinations during the occasion. For this project, 36 million rupees in total were allotted by the President’s Fund.

The Northern Province was the first to start this provincial program, followed by the Southern Province in its second phase and the Eastern Province in its third. Currently, the President’s Fund is organizing the program’s implementation in additional provinces.

According to Arun Hemachandra, Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs and Foreign Employment, the fund is dedicated to the public and Senior Additional Secretary to the President/Secretary of the President’s Fund Roshan Gamage and Eastern Province Governor Jayantha Lal Ratnasekera also spoke to the audience.

With an emphasis on the education of the country’s youth, the Speaker claimed that the President’s Fund had not overlooked anyone in need of assistance. He underlined that the fund is not a private fund but one operated via the donations of the people of the country. As a result, its advantages ought to be limited to the country’s residents’ progress.