Special education to help differently abled

by Ananda KANNANGARA

Education Minister Bandula Gunawardane on Thursday highlighted the invaluable services rendered by Sri Lankan educationists who are capable of implementing new special education systems and said that such new systems will greatly benefit differently abled children in the country.

The Minister made these remarks at a function held in Colombo to coincide with the launching of a book titled Nihanda Mehewara (Silent Mission), written by K. Piyasena Perera, the first Director of Special Education in the Ministry of Education.

Minister Gunawardane said it is very rare to see authors in today's society, who are specialised in special education, therefore they must be given a pride of place as we need many more authors in the calibre of Piyasena Perera who wrote a book on special education.

He said the author has also brought an international leadership award for writing books on special education for the benefit of differently able children all over the world.

The Minister also thanked the Government for taking a decision to provide three percent Government jobs for disabled children in the country from January next year.

He said among 20 million Sri Lankans, nearly five percent are physically and mentally retarded and out of them deaf, dumb, blind and few others who have minor disabilities could be provided with different nature of employment under this program.

He called upon the private sector to make this Government endeavor a success.

He said he is happy to note a large number of private sector and semi Government institutions have positively responded to the Government's request of recruiting disabled persons in to their institutions.

Kala Keerthi Edwin Ariyadasa, Dr. Jayatissa De Costa, PC, Prof. Laxman Disanayake, Mrs. Samanmalee Padamakumara and Dr. Tudor Weerasinghe also spoke on the occasion.