Development of radiation literacy among secondary school students in SRI LANKA

<p>Nuclear and radiation technology plays a vital role in socio-economic development of a country. Sri Lanka as a nation with emerging application of radiation and nuclear technology in the fields of medicine, industry, agriculture, security, and research has a national requirement of enhancing the radiation literacy among the students who will be leading the probable future endeavors. With assistance from international counterparts such as the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and the University of Tokyo, Japan Sri Lanka has initiated a comprehensive, long-term project to achieve this objective. While maintaining a close relationship with the general public,catering the radiation safety and security requirements of the country, Sri Lanka Atomic Energy Board (SLAEB) has deployed a human resource development plan for the secondary school students. This program was assisted by the Ministry of Education, Japan and IAEA.</p><p>The objectives of the program are to improve radiation literacy among students with demonstration assisted activities. The demonstrations are expected to introduce the “WOW Factor” to learning. Overcoming the deficiency of trained human resources for this long-term venture, a training program has been conducted for secondary school physics teachers of the country. The participants’ feedback can be considered as the prime measurement of this program and generally identifies the capacity, improvement and possible success of the overall event. The paper presents the procedure of execution of the program and feedback received from teachers regarding the expected outcome. This can be considered as a pilot study to evaluate the success of the program.</p>