I was shocked to read about the arrest of Mr. H.M. Dayananda on charges of bribery as reported in the Lankadeepa newspaper on December 02nd. I first met Mr. Dayanada as a speaker at an education forum meeting at the SLFI. Since then he attended several other meetings organized by the forum bringing other principals also. I had the opportunity to visit the Kotahena Kanishta Vidyalaya on several occasions. One occasion was the opening of the new meeting room that was repaired and fully furbished by a Bank of Ceylon branch in the neighborhood. Then I was invited ot attend several other events which demonstrated his committment and leadership.  Overall,  I have found Mr. Dayananda  to be an exemplary principal with the welfare of the students and the community utmost on his mind.

This is not the the first time that a principal I had come to admire had slipped and fallen. From what I have gathered so far Mr. Dayananda seems to have taken shortcuts in good faith in his desire to get things done and those did not like the changes or the pace of change had got him snared. This seems to be a pattern. Those who try to get things done resort to short-cuts and get nabbed along with those who take short-cuts to enrich themselves. Taking short-cuts is wrong period, but, why do those who want change  have to resort to short cuts? There are mechanisms for schools to raise additional funds. Why did  not Mr .Dayananda use those mechanisms? We’ll be following the story to get to the bottom of this case as well as other similar cases Please send any information that can shed light.