His excellency the President Mahinda Rajapaksa, launched "Nenasa" - a state-of-the-art Satellite Digital Television based on the Distance Education Bridge, managed and operated by the Ministry of Education and the National Institute of Education (NIE).

The President together with the Minister of Education, Susil Premjayantha, launched the telecast from a classroom in a rural school in the Moneragala district - opening a new vista in access to education to students in Grades 9, 10 and 11 at the Ranjan Wijeratne Maha Vidyalaya in Pelwatta, Moneragala and simultaneously to an estimated 500,000 other students accessing "Nenasa" from across Sri Lanka, including the Northern and Eastern provinces.

"Nenasa" will be dedicated towards telecasting educational content and cater initially to the Ordinary Level and Advanced Level syllabus in Sinhala and Tamil. In addition, teacher-training and skills development would also be included in the programme line-up.

These lessons will be supplemented by a Learning Management System (LMS) through which the interactive element of "Nenasa" is facilitated.

The LMS enables children who have access to the internet to download educational material and time table on "Nenasa" from the internet via www.nenasa.lk, which will effectively be the first time the Sri Lankan educational curriculum would become available on the internet.

- for more information, visit to www.nenasa.lk