Education Incentive Association (EIA) is a nonprofit organization functioning for enhancing educational activities in the Batticaloa district. Recently EIA has expanded its activities to the Ampara district as well. It is mainly comprised of engineering and medical undergraduates and graduates who volunteer to serve society.
1. FOUNDING
The EIA was founded in 1993 based on the conception of Mr. A. Sasikaran who was a teacher at St/Michael’s College, Batticaloa (now lives in Canada), and the students who had sat for the G.C.E Advanced Level (A/L) examination in 1992. The intention of the EIA was to rehabilitate students who were refugees due to the civil war at that time by providing continuous teaching sessions for students from grade six to G.C.E Ordinary Level (O/L), conducting model exams, and organizing sports activities for improving their educational and psychological capabilities. The EIA was founded with thirty members, Mr. Mathiyalahan was the first president of the EIA, and Mr. Shiyamasundaram and Mr. Jayaruban were the secretaries and the treasurer respectively. Mr. A. Sasikaran and Mr. Thayanandan were the founding patrons and helped plan the general activities of EIA.
2. MEMBERSHIP
From 1993 to 1995, the members were A/L students of Batticaloa district who had sat for the examination. From 1996 the membership consisted of the students who succeeded in the A/L examination gaining eligibility to study engineering and medicine. Since 2005 engineering and medical graduates were also included in the membership to further improve and expand the activities of EIA.
3. MANAGEMENT STRUCTURE
From 1993 to 2005 the management structure of EIA consisted of the president, vice president, secretary, treasurer, and committee members. These positions were held by fresh members who just succeeded in A/L examinations since they are more available to handle the day-to-day operations of EIA as they had to wait for at least a year to begin their studies at the university. The senior members who had experience provided the necessary guidance. The president managed the overall activities, the vice-president ensured that all the responsibilities of the president were met when the president was not available, performing any major management task as designated by the president, the secretary managed the documentation, scheduling, inviting the members for meetings, and acted as a liaison with schools and other educational establishments, and the treasurer managed finance of EIA. In 2005, EIA attained a massive expansion with respect to resources and activities. Consequently, the management of EIA was further expanded with the establishment of the Senior Executive Committee which oversees the activities of the newly elected management. This committee plans the activities of EIA by designing new projects and acquiring necessary resources while ensuring the current operations are carried out seamlessly.
4. PRESENT MANAGEMENT STRUCTURE
Once the Senior Executive Committee has been established, the EIA management structure consists of two major hierarchical levels; Senior Executive Committee and Junior Committee. The Senior Executive Committee is responsible for planning the activities, formulating the annual budget, maintaining the resources, and ensuring proper documentation of activities over time, while the Junior Committee is responsible for executing the planned activities.
5. GENERAL ACTIVITIES
In the beginning, EIA conducted several activities to improve the basic level of education of the students covering grades six to O/L. In 1999, it was realized that activities of EIA should be focused on A/L since it determines the future of a student, thus the future of society. Therefore after 1999, most of the activities of EIA were mainly concentrated on A/L education. Achievements of EIA regarding advanced-level education have been significant. One of the significant achievements of EIA was getting an additional district quota for university entrance for all A/L stream students from Batticaloa district which specially allocates more seats for educationally backward districts. Due to the civil war, all the districts in North-East provinces except Batticaloa were declared as educationally backward and awarded an additional quotas. As a result of sound protests hosted by EIA during the period between 2003 and 2004, Batticaloa district was announced as an educationally backward district. Now the EIA mainly focuses to increasing the overall university entrance including the number of merits passes at A/L examinations from Batticaloa and Ampara districts. The activities conducted by EIA include quiz competitions, practice exams, model exams, and seminars.