By Walter Jayawardhana

Ceremonially opening new sports facilities at Piliyandala Central College in the Western Province of Sri Lanka President Mahinda Rajapaksa said driving children from morning till evening to only studies retards the healthy growth of them.

ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ The President said, ƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ…-In the morning the children are sent to school. When they come home after a hard dayƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ¢-¾‚¢s work , it has become the practice of some parents to force them to go to private tuition classes. They end up the day thoroughly exhausted.ƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ”š‚

ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ The President said for the healthy growth of our children, sports is extremely essential.

ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ He said the government is intending to open up few more schools specializing in athletics and sports at the cost of millions like the Piliyandala facilities with playgrounds, indoor gymnasiums and swimming pools.

ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ President Rajapaksa said the intention of the government in providing play grounds and swimming pools for sports is to raise the Sri Lankan standards in sports and athletics to international standards.

ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ The President said for the intellectual advancement of the child physical activities are also very essential.

ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ The President said while the children in the South were going to schools with volumes of books in their hands, for thirty years the children in the North were going to battlefields with AK 47ƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ¢-¾‚¢s forced on them by the LTTE.

ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ He said his greatest ambition is to equally educate the Tamil children in the North and East like the other children in the South.

ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ ƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ…-I want to give them all what they were deprived of them for the last thirty years,ƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ”š‚the President emphasized.