The Sirisena - Ranil conflict and events leading to MR's return as PM

The Commonwealth Institute arranged for me to attend a conference on Science and Technology held in Sydney with the assistance of the Australian government.

- Sarath Amunugama

The Commonwealth Institute arranged for me to attend a conference on Science and Technology held in Sydney with the assistance of the Australian government. This meeting was of special interest to us because a large number of our technical officers had trained there under the Colombo Plan which was managed by the Commonwealth office. Many of staffers had returned to Australia and held positions as engineers and technicians, both with the national government and the Sydney municipal administration.

They had earned a reputation as hardworking and reliable employees. In particular we had many graduates of Katubedda Technical College among them. I had discussions with them and they offered to gift some equipment necessary to their alma mater. I was keen to expand the number of such training institutes in Sri Lanka as there was a big demand for them. We managed to resurrect the Katubedde College's branch premises in Borella so that classes could also be conducted there in order to increase the trainee intake.

My pledge was to double the intake in all our training centres which were lagging behind and were merely comfort zones to the staff. They had to be galvanized through entreaties as well as threats. But in the end we reached our goals though the standards of our training staff, particularly in the outstations, left much to be desired. Technical training is the Achilles’ heel of our education system.

Poland