Abstract:
School librarianship is an evolving profession. The components that integrate the SLIS
with the classroom teaching programme are what differentiate modern SLIS schools from
traditional libraries. Successive governments since Independence have made immense
contributions to make the education system of Sri Lanka a success. Yet there has been a
sharp decline in the standards and quality of education at all levels in the recent past. In
1991, National Education Commission was constituted with the mandate of advising the
government on overall education policy covering all aspects of education. To implement
the education policy reforms the government sought support from foreign donor agencies
and the World Bank provided a considerable amount of credit facilities to improve the
general education system of Sri Lanka. General Education Project (GEP) funded by the
World Bank has several components and the Libraries component, was expected to
provide books, equipment, furniture, and training for staff in library management for
4000 selected government schools. NILIS was established to cater to the training needs
of these new school libraries developed under GEP2. This paper briefly discusses the
concept of modern school library, the current education system of Sri Lanka and the
education policy reforms. It also describes the GEP2 and the library component together
with the administrative and academic structure of NILIS. In the final section different
types of education and training programmes offered by NILIS with the objective of
developing a new breed of teachers librarians are discussed
