Chereen Dharmaratne, beacon of light for generations of students

COLOMBO: Chereen Dharmaratne qualified in London in the Montessori Education runs her Montessori School and Teachers' Training Centre in Havelock Town. She is known to everyone, as 'Aunty Chereen'.

Her education method is a practice that is always up-to-date and dynamic. When physical, mental, spiritual, and emotional needs are met children glow with excitement and a drive to play and work with enthusiasm, to learn, and to create. Such fulfilling training methods evoke desires to teach, help, and care for others and for their environment.

She started the Havelock Gardens Montessori School in 1968 with just 3 children from the neighbourhood. Over the years, the school has develop from the play group to Grade 1. The children have a well-equipped school with all the Montessori apparatus according to American standards.

Most of the children who study in this school leave to the leading Colombo Schools such as Royal College, St. Thomas' College, St Bridges Convent, Holy Family Convent, Bishops College, Ladies College, Methodist College and other leading schools in Colombo and Suburbs and to International Colleges as well.

In addition, the children are taught ballet dancing by the Deanna School of Ballet as well as Elocution.

Her staff in the school are well-trained teachers who have been trained by her. It is a noticeable fact that these tots gather more than the usual education and training. They get away with the shyness and the backwardness and become a lovable and amenable lot under her care and guidance.

This is revealed at the end of the year when children perform at the annual concert in front of the parents. They show how capable they are in acting, and exposing their talents. In her Teacher Training School, teachers are trained in the proper use of Montessori apparatus.

For the past 35 years, she has trained batches each year up to Diploma Level. The last batch was the 95th batch that completed training. Although almost all the trainees are ladies a few males also have done the course during this period. It is somewhat surprising to note the categories of people and their ages.

From graduates to young school leavers, housewives as well and ages ranging from 16 to 66 is a common cross section of the trainees in her training programmes. All of them show a great interest in learning how to educate children at their most impressionable age of 2 1/2 to 6 years.

It is a valuable experience one gathers from her, including how to be with children and how to tackle the children at different situations.

Trainees follow the course for various reasons such as making it a career at home or abroad. Diploma Holders from this training centre are working with distinction all over the world, where this method is recognised. The middle aged ladies follow the course as a retirement plan as well as to be with their grandchildren while their own sons and daughters are at work.

In the current batch i.e. the 96th batch which she has just started, there are three sisters from the same family who have joined the course. No barrier how educated you are, even Doctors, Engineers, Lawyers, Degree Holders, Foreigners from America, England, Canada, Japan, India, Pakistan, Israel, Indonesia, the Philippines, Bangladesh, and Male', do this course as an extra qualification.

Chereen Dharmaratne is a very charming lady, a teacher, a trainer, an examiner in the field of Montessori education. She was crowned as Beauty Queen twice during her prime years. Still her beauty and charm has not left her. It is a pleasure and an experience to learn under her and to be trained by her.

The students from her school are now in high places, opened up their own Montessori Schools and still look up to her as a teacher and respect her for the initial guidance. The parents who had brought their children respect her and remember her as some one who moulded the characters of their children.

The teachers who have been trained are all over the world specially in the USA, Canada, UK, Australia, New Zealand, Middle East and in African Countries. She has done immense service to the country by way of training children and teachers and will no doubt be a guiding hand and an example to all Montessori teachers.