AI Chatbot for the '1966' Vocational Education Hotline — Sri Lanka's Trilingual Guidance Assistant for School Leavers

On 6 November 2025, Sri Lanka's Ministry of Education, Higher Education and Vocational Education launched what it described as the country's first fully AI-based government service-delivery web chatbot, alongside a new "1966" telephone hotline, at the Nipunatha Piyasa centre in Narahenpita, Colombo. The launch was presided over by Prime Minister Harini Amarasuriya as part of the ministry's push to connect the new school curriculum's vocational strand to real information channels for students.

The chatbot answers questions in Sinhala, Tamil and English about vocational-training opportunities, eligibility and procedures for students, parents and teachers, and was built entirely in-house by the ministry's own ICT unit rather than outsourced to a vendor.

Official and independent Sri Lankan press coverage confirms the launch, languages and hotline integration, but neither the ministry nor independent outlets have yet published call volumes, chatbot usage figures or outcome data, so the practice is documented here as a real, in-house-built deployment without yet-measured impact.

Read the full analysis: https://skillsmin.gov.lk/blog/2025/11/06/launch-of-sri-lankas-first-fully-ai-based-government-service-delivery-web-chatbot/