the setting up and development of which had been Charles' priority number one from 1998 to now ...
Charles gave three months of leave back to the university by working voluntarily till the end of March.
Here, photos taken at a large group session conducted by Charles with the use also of videos.
After a big struggle Charles had managed to recruit two Careers Advisors for the unit. Introducing them to the students, training them, and getting them to start conducting employability skills training sessions etc started. |
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While various discussions had been held with the Vice-Chancellor ...
It was arranged for the Vice-Chancellor to visit the unit
meet the staff
and discuss progress and future plans.
Charles explains the idea behind the pioneering project to try to use computers to support employability skills development ...
while the new Director, Mr Dhanapala looks on.
Formal opening of the
Skills Lab and the Resource Centre
felicitation of two Alumni who had won national awards
and something of a farewell to Charles
felicitation of two Alumni who had won national awards
and something of a farewell to Charles
and Mr Wegapitiya
(Guest of Honour) were invited to jointly declare open the new lab.
from left to right
and top to bottom:
The guests are invited to the area where the resource centre and lab are located
Cutting the ribbon to formally open the centre
The Guest of Honour looks at material in the resource Centre ...
The Dean of the Management Faculty too joins ...
The Vice-Chancellor making a point about the use of the resource centre
The programmer explains to guests ... while Charles offers a clarification to the Chief Guest |
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The Guest of Honour is seen lighting the oil lamp while the Chief Guest and the Vice-Chancellor look on ...
The President of the Students' Union takes his turn while the Dean of the , Management Faculty looks on.
Charles too is invited to light the lamp
The two alumni from the Management Faculty won respectively the Platinum Award and the Gold Award at the 2005 Awards Ceremony organised by the Federation of Chambers of Commerce and Industry of Sri Lanka and held in December 2006. Felicitating them on their achievement, Commemorative Plaques were presented to them. They then addressed the audience referring mainly to lessons from experience. Charles too addressed the audience concentrating mainly on the significance of the new lab and resource centre that had been opened a while earlier.. |
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The new Director then presented a memento to Charles as an expression of gratitude for what had been done and achieved..
| The
Vice-Chancellor was invited to present to Charles the first copy of a booklet prepared by the staff at the request of some past students of Charles. The cover is reproduced opposite. An extract of the first ten pages (is available here) giving an idea of: - Mission Statement - Aims/Objectives - Achievement against aims and objectives - What is available currently in the new lab & resource centre - Outline of the two new Careers Modules on offer Even a shorter extract is below. |
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| In this CD version the full text of the
"Tribute" is available too. |
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In spite of
the work put in, lessons learnt and
the sacrifices made, (Charles nearly
paid for it with his life!) ... and in spite of the hopes he has
that work will be continued ... Charles does have misgivings. Sri Lanka is a country where clear policies on anything are difficult to find. Governments change and the new leaders typically think they know everything (without studying the issues involved, without respecting the views of those who were immersed in the related issues) and start making decisions. There has recently been a shift away from "supporting employability of the graduate" to "providing jobs in the public sector to graduates" ... Such a political agenda often gets integrated even in academic leadership at national level (e.g. at Ministry and University Grants Commission) and at local level (e.g. Vice Chancellors and other decision makers). And quite often even top academic leaders ... who at other times say "policy & continuity" are important fall into the same trap. |
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Charles says
he cannot help being amused (to say
the least) when such people (whose
specialisms Charles does respect) start pontificating on what
Career Guidance for Undergraduates should be. And so Charles does have misgivings that the orientations may change ... But what has to change fundamentally is the entire Higher Education System ... with a dire need to make it outcomes focussed ...not trying to pour in knowledge into the brains of the students ... but facilitating the development of knowledge, skills and attitudes. Charles presented a paper recently on this matter and will be quite happy to pass same on to anyone interested. |
Charles says that recently a senior academic decision maker in evaluating Charles' contribution said " he has put in a tremendous amount of work, and developed the infrastructure and the human resources". Charles does not blame such persons but realises that such are persons who have not become familiar with matters like action research, experiential learning, learning cycle, learning organisation, systemic approaches and the work of authors such as Lewin, Mumford and Kolb. Such people unfortunately find it difficult to understand the learning process that other people have gone through ... the study of problems done ... the reasons for orientations chosen etc.
Giving just one example, Charles says that guiding people to the jobs that seem to suit them and then to the degree programmes that are appropriate is just absurd in the current context of Sri Lanka. The young people (except the privileged ones who can go abroad or study in the private sector) have very little choice regarding the study programmes they are assigned to on the basis of their Advanced Level Examination results. Given that what is essential is to support them in the studies they do ... and help them build up the skills in demand. And so thinking of a foreign model and making decisions here in Sri Lanka is irrelevant (to say the least).
Charles is happy that (even though it required tremendous pushing with much personal sacrifice) he was able to win approval for staff positions and recruit and train them.
While Charles was full-time Director, in the future the Directors will most probably be part-time ...
That is perfectly understandable because even though Charles was ready to do it, typical academics will not be ready to give up work that increases points for their promotions etc.
It was for this reason that two Careers Advisor positions were won and persons recruited ... so that they can really do the work in full-time manner guided by the Director.
Having given back voluntarily 3 months of the entitlement of the two-year sabbatical,
Charles finally began 1 year and 9 months of leave.
He has however promised some more services to be attended to leisurely during the months ahead.
Charles was born at Diyalagoda (Maggona) between Colombo and Galle. He was in fact the last of the 'clan' to be born in the home of Charles' maternal grandparents. Charles studied in the small village school there until grade seven.
| The village
Church is dedicated to St Sebsatian whose feast is traditionally
fixed for 20th January. The community there celebrate it on the Sunday that follows. Nine days of 'novenas' precede it with 'vespers' being celebrated on Saturday evening. On Sunday, after the festive celebration of the Eucharist ... a procession carrying the statue of the Saint circles the village. |
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The people file past after that ...
The band of the school of the village proper precedes the statue carried in procession.
(photos below) After circling the village the procession heads back to the church and the tempo hightens with bells peeling, fire-crackers being lit etc.
| As
everywhere, popular religion exists and is clearly visible. Top right: Some devotees queue up ... and await the arrival of the statue ... and then as the status approaches the church compound, they start creeping under the statue hoping that that brings added blessings. |
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It is placed close to the sanctuary ...
The final blessing is with a special smaller statue ... which is then placed in a special repository for veneration by the people.
The community joins in loud applause to mark the successful completion of yet another annual festival.
Nilmini has been going ahead with her work as Montessori Teacher.
Some pictures showing Nilmini at work at St Bridget's Montessori in Colombo. Evidently it does require quite a bit of effort and preparation at home and even though Nilmini was hesitant about this sector earlier, she seems to have taken to it. In January they even had a celebration to mark 100 years of Montessori Education. |
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| Charles,
Felicia and the family had been taking care of the parents since 1987. Here opposite is a picture taken of the two of them around 1990. In 1992, a small celebration was held to mark the Golden Jubilee of their marriage and relatives and friends participated. The picture below shows the two of them cutting the cake on returning from the Euchristic Celebration in the parish church. Charles' father died in March 2001 ... The next picture was taken on 31st Jan when the mother completed 90 years. |
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The death was peaceful just as that of the father 6 years back had been. The family was round her praying with Charles holding her hand and stroking her head as she passed away quietly.
The funeral was very simple. Charles had been saying all long that what is important is what one does when the parents are alive. Thus a very cheap coffin was bought. Prayer and the connected religious activities were central.
Following tradition, an almsgiving ('dana') was held on the 7th day inviting a number of less privileged womenfolk ... giving them food, dry food to take home & some cash.
| Charles's
mother had been one of 7 children. With everyone else dead now, only
the younger brother (he and his wife
were teachers at St Anthony's Kandy) is alive. Given their
health condition they were unable to attend the funeral. As part of the
activities in memory of the mother, Charles and family went to Kandy to
visit them and spent a weekend there. The uncle was overjoyed ... and
the sorrow was subdued. He was relating to Charles' son and daughter
stories about what he had to do on the day Charles was born etc. |
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He has a house located in most beautiful surroundings within the Victoria Golf Club ...rated as one amongst the 10 most beautiful golf links in the world.
In the top photo, the small river in the distance is where seaplanes/floatplanes brining tourists from Colombo land.
particularly when it was Charles' workhorse for over 15 years ...
The insert shows the Morris Minor "model" he gifted Charles on Charles' 63rd birthday in February!
The last picture shows also the Nissan Wingroad that Charles uses since 2001 ... and that is the only car in Sri Lanka that bears a sticker of UCL (Université Catholique de Louvain in Belgium) with Charles proudly claiming he is the senior-most Sri Lankan graduate of that university.