A four-day international meeting on Education is to be held in Colombo from 8^th till 11^th February. Organized by the Elated School Development Organisation (ESDO) -formed by a number of NGOs, governmental bodies, educational institutions and INGOs to cope with the educational problems raised after the tsunami-, this meeting aims to identify some definite set of requirements in assuring education to all the children in a disaster situation. The conclusions of this meeting will be presented to the Minister of Education Mr. Susil Premjayanth, chief guest in the closing session on the 11^th.

Eminent people from the local and international education scenario will participate in this meeting to share their ideas and experiences on education in a disaster situation and on issues related to the rehabilitation process and disaster preparedness in the Sri Lankan education system.

“Our commitment is to enable tsunami affected children to resume their formal schooling while ensuring that the affected community undertakes the larger campaign to demand Education as a Fundamental Right”, says Ms. Kamala Pieris, chair person of ESDO.

During the meeting, the presenters will analyze, among others, the status of education in Sri Lanka and Asia, disaster preparedness in Education and will share educational experiences from other countries prior affected by disasters.

“This meeting and its conclusions will provide us the opportunity to take this important dialogue forward to lobby for an internationally accepted agreement where the countries feel an obligation to act upon these commonly accepted standards in a disaster situation”, says Saroj Dash, Programme and Policy Team Leader from ActionAid International Sri Lanka, which is facilitating the campaign. “The need of getting mass mobilization as a strong guiding force is relevant not only in Sri Lanka but also in all other tsunami affected countries as well”, he continues.

As a result of this sharing, a People’s Charter will be developed in a collaborative manner as a tool in mobilizing the international community. This People’s Charter will be presented to the Minister of Education Mr. Susil Premjayanth in the closing session on Saturday.

During the four-day meeting, an art exhibition will have space for the drawings of the children from other tsunami affected countries who have drawn their “dream school” in so-called Art schools, conducted in all affected areas as a psycho social activity as well as to understand the children’s expectation of a “dream school”.

Parallel to the art exhibition, a set of structures of model schools for coastal areas proposed by architects will also be exhibited during this period. These models will emphasize the special areas to be focused on architecture in the light of suggestions for constructing “safe schools”.