What seemed a routine post was saddened when I found, looking him up, that Giyan Kiriella had died last month in Australia. There was a picture of him looking just as he did at school except for the grey hair. And I recalled seeing this his whimsical conversation when he saw me at the cottage over two decades back, three ...

This post covers the strange tale of Colonel Ananda de Alwis and his anonymous letter when I was coordinating the new degree programme at the Sri Lanka Military Academy. He was a most peculiar man, who had a sinecure there with lots of privileges but did little work, and resented my efforts to actually ensure that the students could communicate ...

This post covers a range of material, including the ancillary responsibilities I took on with the English medium task, for Tara expected me to set right problems with regard to English Teacher Training in the system. It was astonishing how the in theory professional educationists at the NIE in their devotion to theory never bothered to think about the practical ...

A lot of different work is covered in this post, most notably about the problems within the system that made the reintroduction of English medium so difficult. The picture here is of Dr Ginige, who was perhaps the biggest stumbling block, a problem that became more serious when Ranil got rid of me and she in essence took over the ...

I return after ten posts of earlier travels after I returned to the university system to the new century when reintroducing English medium was the most important of the many tasks I was engaged in. But while this post records much work in this regard, including a workshop at the Mahaweli College of Education, which had overtaken Pasdunrata as the ...

This post describes the beginning of problems at Jayewardenepura for Dorakumbura no longer supported my initiatives. He was also now a great influence at the UGC for the new regime knew nothing about the AUCs and considered him their expert on the subject. Problems with Dorakumbura Next morning I was at USJP, where I have noted that Paru spoke to ...

This describes more training and also the commencement of the Mahaweli programme, for which Nirmali Hettiarachchi came with me. She was excellent with youngsters, so also worked on the project we continued with at the Buttala College, to bring together students from different communities for English camps. I have shown pictures of our reunion already, so these of Dinali and ...

This notes my disappointment with the new Vice-Chairman who was not a patch on the hard-working Prof Balasuriya, and then describes a long journey north which involved a variety of training. More training as support faded I went to the UGC next morning to see Ratnasiri who wanted to talk endlessly though she did little, and then I prepared project ...

This mentions one of my favourite GELT coordinators, a lively chap called Ranasinghe who I think must have done much for English in Kuliyapitiya which produced better results than elsewhere. It also describes one of the principal difficulties this country faces with regard to education, namely the determination to spoonfeed and thus preserve the power of the pedagogue,  whereas true ...

The next two journeys too were with Kithsiri, with a little work in Colombo in between, so I omit all that including the visit with Kithsiri to Mutur which I have described in the parallel series. I move then to some work in Colombo when I met Prof Nalini Ratnasiri for the first time, and then another journey with another ...

I omit my next GELT trip for I described it some weeks back in the parallel series on travels with Kithsiri, but instead move straight to Aluvihare where he dropped me after four days of hard work. And from there I had a memorable trip in a lorry, to deliver library carts for the Australian funded reading project in secondary ...

This deals with my first overnight journey with Kithsiri and then preparations for a trip abroad. And then there was a long journey to the north with another Codipilly driver. South and North It was the next morning that my brother was rude about my father with regard to his car, so after that, on the few occasions on which ...

I describe here a long journey with another of the Codipilly drivers, the last protracted one without Kithsiri, but as noted this driver too was pleasant and easy to work with. It was a long meander, typical of what I did in those days, taking in Amparai and Trincomalee, where Siron had again arranged for me to stay at Fr. ...

This records a profoundly sad consequence of D B Wijetunge’s dithering, the death of the Vice-Chairman who had been a tower of strength to Arjuna Aluvihare. I am so very glad that I made it a point to speak to him and express my admiration and appreciation of all he had done. I cannot find a picture of Prof Balasuirya, ...

I return after ten more posts about travels with Kithsiri, at the end of the century, to the period when I first met him, back in 1993. But in those early days I used him only sporadically, and these posts will continue with much else, for in the other series I dwelt mainly on work we had done together. This ...

This records a sad event, the death of one of my favourite uncles by marriage. Then there is much about the new building at Palankadewatte, and also the active involvement with lots of Education Ministry officials, for we had to get as many Zonal Directors and District English Directors involved as well as the NIE and the officials in charge ...

This notes some of the opposition the English medium project faced, and also records the vast amount of other work I was involved in, including still the South Eastern University. But I note too the very positive response of Indian publishers, not only Cambridge University Press with whom I had developed a useful collaboration, but also Longman’s and Oxford University ...

For the reintroduction of English medium in government schools I received much support from foreign agencies, with the British and the Canadians particularly keen to help. Meanwhile I was also working on the house for Kithsiri, and I mention here for the first time the workmen from his village who became an integral part of my life over the next ...

Looking back on all this, I am immensely proud of the staff I used for the English medium project, including the RESC personnel who were most enthusiastic, and my former Sabaragamuwa students who worked with a will. But as I note, not all Zonal directors were enthusiastic, Colombo in particular ignoring the initiative, so that only Ananda College and its ...

Much more here about how we started English medium, a massive undertaking I can now see though it was great fun at the time. We had to train teachers and get materials ready and arrange for distribution and monitoring of the books, while also enthusing principals, not at all an easy task in less than six months. But I had ...