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Ravi Karunanayake wants “Christian College”:Parents
The authorities of a leading school and parents of students in the school are embroiled in a controversy over a voting that was sought to change the name of the school back to its original name.

Parents of students of Sri Jayawardhanapura Vidyalaya in Kotte who are members of the School Development Society complain that the vote taken to change the name of the school to "Christian College" was not conducted in a fair manner and they also complain that there was unwanted interference by minister Ravi Karunanayake area to change the name of the school.

Parents say that most of the people who voted at the election were not members of the School Development Society, with a membership of more that 1200 parents, is the accepted decision maker on issues affecting the school.

One parent told The Sunday Times that more than half of those who voted did not belong to the School Development Society but were old boys who are not officially entitled to vote in making decisions. He said that though there were more than 1200 parents in the School Development Society only about 200 parents voted while all the others were old boys of the school.

He added that the School Development Society had not been informed in advance that there would be a vote over a name change for the school and therefore there was no satisfactory participation of members of the Society on the occasion.
But the school principal Mr. T.M. Gunaratne said that all those who took part in the voting belonged to the Society and not a single person representing the old boys voted. He said that decision was taken to change the name of the school from Sri Jayawardhanapura Vidyalaya to Christian College, which was name of the school before 1964, because this would pave the way for the school to obtain donations easily from local and foreign bodies.

He said that the standard of the school deteriorated gradually since the name of the school was changed to Sri Jayawardhanapura Vidyalaya, because there was a decline of donations since the name change. He added that several groups and old boys have already promised to grant donations to the school once the name of the school is changed and that they have officially informed the Education Department to consider the change.

A bhikkhu in the area said there is a plot with the involvement of a Cabinet minister to unnecessarily change the name of the school and added the issue would be raised in Parliament. He said there is no reason to change the name of the school to Christian College on the pretext of obtaining donations because the school is already a well-known one and therefore there is no logic in saying that donations are not flowing in. A senior teacher in the school who wished to remain anonymous also said the name change is supported by only a few officials in the school who are backed by a politician and that most of the staff are against it. Minister Karunanayake was not available for comment as he is out of the country.

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