Jayakody's world of children

Channa Bandara Wijekoon

The versatile singer and musician Visharadha Edward Jayakody has been doing a yeoman service for decades to enhance the aptitude for aesthetics among children. He has a gamut of children's songs with evergreen value, to his credit as a singer.

Visharadha Edward Jayakody

Holding the responsible position 'Director of music Education' in the Ministry of education, Edward is silently grooming young and talented students to become sensible adults with a sense for aesthetics who would contribute towards the betterment of the motherland in the future.

More recently, Edward has travelled with 20 talented Sri Lankan school children to Japan on an educational tour.

The Japanese Scholarship program "Bridge to Asia....Peace and Life" initiated last year, paves way for school children in Asian countries to travel to Japan with a view to carrying out mutual programs focused on grooming children to become sensible adults.

Sri Lanka has been chosen unanimously and granted the scholarship for the second consecutive year, as a result of the positive approach and aptitude shown by our children last year. The education ministries of the two countries have sponsored the tour.

Though the scholarship is granted by the Japanese educational ministry, the brainchild of the program is none other than the Sri Lankan scholar, Professor Chandralal. The Prof. who had hailed from Polgahawela and studied at Polgahawela Parakramabahu College is employed at the Okinawa University in Japan. The twofold criterion for selecting children had been an essay competition and an interview to judge their intelligence and artistic talents.

"Japan being a country which had survived the repercussions of a post-war era is a platform for Sri Lanka to benchmark with in many aspects since Sri Lanka too is a country which had gone through a dreadful era of war for three decades", said Edward.

Edward Jayakody with his family

"The tour was an educational yet enjoyable one for the children. They were taken to various places of importance and given the opportunity to mingle with the Japanese children. They engaged in many activities pertaining to cultural values and norms. There were workshops to nurture their sense in cleanliness, punctuality, hospitality, humanity and so forth and so on", he said.

The air travel and ferry rides had enthralled the children. They had spent one day on an Island consisting a single school. Children had been trained to eat with chopsticks and taught useful Japanese words, manners and Japanese customs prior to the trip.

On the last day at the time of departure, both Sri Lankan and Japanese children had become very emotional. "If children all over the world can live in harmony, why can't the adults follow suit?", queries Edward.

Edward was very concerned about disturbances local students face time to time in their educational process. If the education system is disturbed, Sri Lankan exams will lose their credibility in the long-run, he observed.

Edward takes pride in spearheading the ongoing all Island schools music competition. Around 15000 to 20000 children are to gather in Colombo for the finals. Seven to eight schools in Colombo will provide lodging for these children. The mega event is conducted by the aesthetic division of the ministry of education.

The one time Education Minister Irriyagolla and the head of music unit W B Makuloluwa had helped Edward to excel as a singer in his younger days. Edward is now in the process of compiling a brand-new collection of children's songs. His one-man musical recital 'Marambari' too is geared with some of his evergreen children's songs.

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