Education: Education plays an important role in moulding the character. No arguments. It is a fact. The law expects every child to receive education. If one cannot go the full round at least cover the minimum, primary education.

In the Asian Region, Sri Lanka is able to keep her head high with modest pride as more than 90 per cent her populi is able to read and write.

Our education system has its roots in the Temples and the "Guru Gedara" of the yesteryears. The children learnt the first lessons of their lives at the foot of the `Guru' who is held in high esteem.

Times have passed. Systems have seen the unavoidable change. Three major foreign powers ruled Sri Lanka. The Portuguese, The Dutch and the English within a period of approximately five decades ruled this country.

They implanted their values and traditions. Each of them made it a point to impart basics of education. This transformed pirivena education. Centres begun under watchful of eye of the Catholic and Christian clergy provided education that went beyond the portal of the Sri Lanka and opened the world before their students.

They studied not only their mother tongue but also studied foreign languages specially English. This gave rise to a new society and that itself helped those came afterwards to realise that Sri Lanka was under foreign domain and needed to be freed. This consciousness was a result of in depth education not only of the land one is born into, but of the world beyond our reach.

With Independence, Free Education was introduced and the Nation salutes the hero behind the scheme Christopher William Wijekoon Kannangara as the Father of Free Education. He had to face many challenges and rivalries in introducing the Bill on Free Education, because the bourgeoisie did not like the proletariat learning.

Introducing the Bill for Free Education scheme C.W.W. had this to say to the Members of the State Council in 1946 : "If I did not get a scholarship, a poor person like me would never have received higher education. It is this fact that made me give each and every child this boon and this was my only aim."

The bill was passed on October 06, 1946. Thus he made Education a responsibility of the State, the Government.

Once the Bill was passed by the State Council he said with modest pride : "I have opened the book of education which was closed up to now. Education which was a privilege of the few, is now the privilege of all. I have removed all obstacles that work against the population receiving education".

It was his ardent wish that all children got the opportunity of attending school. "To provide education freely whereas it was available only at a higher price. Education treated hitherto as a closed book, to be converted to be an open letter. Education which was a legacy of the affluent to be converted to be an inheritance of the poor". That was the cardinal principle in his life that led him to introduce the scheme of free education.

A recent news report in the Daily News said that over 3,000 children in the Central Province do not attend school. The fact is that not only in the Central Province but also in very many places children do not attend school for some reason or another. Although the law expects parents to send their children to schools, poverty and the like would have prevented them attending to school. Added to these reasons the system of enrolment adopted in the recent past has contributed directly to keep the child away from school.

In the days when we were young, our parents had no problem of enroling the children to the school nearby and there was no competition at the time where you need to fight `tooth and nail' to see that your child is admitted to a popular school.

There was no class distinction or ` good schools : bad schools' concept.

They were schools run by the Churches, by the Temples or Buddhist Organisations like the Paramavinggnartha Samagama. The teachers were good, dedicated and God fearing and they saw the profession as a special vocation.

But the scene has completely changed today. Parents suffer from enigma and they have to go from pillar to post to prove their residence in a place nearest the school.

The parents if they want to send the child to a school of their choice because of its popularity or the next neighbour's child goes to that school or does not want to send his/her son because the neighbour's child attend the same, go about looking for an ideal place to suit the child's future needs.

This is the sordid scenario we see and we hear about when it is time to make your application to send one's child to school next year. The distinctions made by the authorities, the establishment of National schools, and inability of the Education Ministry to distribute good, dedicated and qualified teachers evenly among all the schools have heavily contributed to competition and other evils.

If all the schools have good, qualified and dedicated teachers, parents need not run looking for the `so called good schools'.

The present Education Minister Susil Premajayantha is a man who is down to earth. He could one day be proud if he acts to fulfil the dream of C.W.W. Kannangara, who introduced free education to the poor sons and daughters of the soil.

If he is serious about giving equal opportunity and sound education to all, the first thing he should do is to introduce a new law that children up to grade five should attend a school close to their home-town. Let those schools in the village have good and qualified teachers to stop the hunt for `good schools'.

Depoliticise the present education system. Free the teachers from the political bondage they are trapped in. Let them not go behind politicians for their due promotions. Recruit good and qualified teachers to the profession.

Remove and expel those unworthy of the profession or those who have taken the profession because there was nothing else to do. Recognise the good service done by the dedicated teachers and make them a`Role Model" for others who join the profession, looking at it not merely as a source of income but as a service to the nation. Act now and it is never too late.