{"id":106927,"date":"2020-09-23T15:27:06","date_gmt":"2020-09-23T22:27:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/?p=106927"},"modified":"2020-09-23T15:27:06","modified_gmt":"2020-09-23T22:27:06","slug":"bogoda-premarathne-education-visionary","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/2020\/09\/23\/bogoda-premarathne-education-visionary\/","title":{"rendered":"Bogoda Premarathne \u2013 Education Visionary"},"content":{"rendered":"

Chanaka Bandarage<\/strong><\/em><\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n

Mr Bogoda Premarathne is a pioneer in streamlining\nSri Lanka\u2019s education system.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

As\nthe Commissioner of Examinations he devised a strategy to release public exam\nresults (O\/L and A\/L) within few weeks of their completion. This was a\nremarkable achievement as in the 1970s it took many months for the results to\nbe released. Sometimes students\nhad to wait for more than 12 months for the results to be released.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mr Premarathne served on the American Field\nService (AFS) and Fulbright Scholarships committees.  He was very fair, honest and reasonable in\nselecting students for these scholarships. Mr Premarathne unlocked doors for\nmany rural youth to travel to USA and obtain valuable educational qualifications.\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Previously these opportunities were mainly available\nto students from Colombo schools. The main selection criteria was whether or\nnot they spoke fluent English. Thus, only students from elite schools such as\nRoyal, St Thomas\u2019 St Peter\u2019s. St Joseph\u2019s, Ladies, Bishops, St Bridget\u2019s were\nable to secure these scholarships.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mr Premarathne was appointed as Chair of the\nEducational Reforms Committee of Sri Lanka in 1980, this appointment was made\nby the then President, JR Jayewardene. Mr Premarathne\u2019s committee report was so\nsuccessful, it was fully accepted and implemented by the government.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

An ardent Buddhist, Mr Premarathne wrote a\nnumber of books on Buddhism. He was a senior member of the All Ceylon Buddhist\nCongress (ACBC). He made valuable contributions to this organisation. His\ncontemporaries at the ACBC included Dr Gunapala Malalasekera, HW Amarasuriya,\nDouglas Umagiliya, JW Piyatissa, Prof MB Ariyapala, Dr DS Bandarage, Albert\nEdirisinghe, YR Piyasena, Leelananda Caldera, PC Perera and Hewage Jayasena.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Some\nsay Mr. Premaratne\u2019s knowledge of Buddhism surpassed that was of the most\nerudite monks. Mr Premarathne was not a realist Buddhist, but, a practical\nBuddhist. He observed Sil on almost every Full Moon Poya day (along with the\nabove mentioned luminaries).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As the Principal of Royal College (from 1959\nto 1966) Mr Premarathne undertook many steps to solidify that school as Sri\nLanka\u2019s premier boy\u2019s school. He was the first Buddhist and the first non \u2013 Old\nRoyalist Sri Lankan to be appointed as the Principal of Royal College (he was\nan old Anandian). Apart from the many good things he did for Royal he\nintroduced the Sinhala translation to Royal\u2019s school song \u2018Disce Aut Disc\u0113de\u2019.  It is\nstill being used.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mr Premarathne was an able school\nadministrator, he was not ardently strict. \nHe was kind to students and worked with them to overcome their difficulties\/problems.\nHe wanted the parents to become heavily involved in their children\u2019s education.\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mr Premarathne gave a true Buddhist dimension\nto Royal College. Under his auspices Sil campaigns on Poya Days were started. Mr\nPremarathne is credited with establishing the Royal College swimming pool.  He raised funds for this project with the\nsupport of the Royal College Old Boy\u2019s Association.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At the ripe old age of 92 Mr Premarathne\nsighed his last breath; on 26\nDecember 2013.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

May Mr Bogoda Premarathne attain the supreme\nbliss of Nibbana!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Chanaka Bandarage Mr Bogoda Premarathne is a pioneer in streamlining Sri Lanka\u2019s education system.  As the Commissioner of Examinations he devised a strategy to release public exam results (O\/L and A\/L) within few weeks of their completion. This was a remarkable achievement as in the 1970s it took many months for the results to be […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":true,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[88],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-106927","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-chanaka-bandarage"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/106927","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=106927"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/106927\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=106927"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=106927"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=106927"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}