General Sir John Kotelawala Defence University launched its two-day International Research Conference under the theme ‘Holistic Approach to National Growth and Security’ on October 15.

The inaugural session of the conference, held for the 13th consecutive time, was graced by Minister of Education, Professor G. L. Peiris as the chief guest and Professor Kapila Perera, Secretary to the Ministry of Education, was the keynote speaker of the event.

The Vice Chancellor Major General Milinda Pieris in his welcome address stated the significance of the Conference taking place in a challenging environment, and he stressed the commitment of the university for continuity of events even under the most trying circumstances. Such efforts, he opined, would be necessary for enhancing the resilience of the nation during crisis situations.

Minister Peiris elucidated the significance of the conference theme that highlights the intimate relationship between national security and the development, explaining with empirical evidence from the experiences of the nation in the recent past, how development efforts undermining security could be detrimental to a country’s future.

Speaking about higher education in the country, he emphasized on the urgent need for reforms to bridge the gap between education and employment opportunities. He stressed on the need to revise what he called “obsolete and anachronistic curricula” in education and for introducing methods of teaching and learning that develop analytical and critical faculties of learners to enable them to apply volumes of knowledge to face challenges and solve problems.

The keynote speaker Prof. Kapila Perera explained the concept of security in a broader perspectives and elaborated how the absence of security would jeopardize our expectations of being developed.

He emphasized on the need to apply a holistic approach to education. KDU has proven to be an institution that adopts such an approach. With his closer affinity with KDU as one of its alumnus, he commented on the success of the experimentations of KDU with a new model in education where civil and military students engage in their higher educational pursuits.

The two-day conference attracted 650 plus paper submissions for the technical sessions, and the first day was successfully concluded with the completion of the nine Faculty plenary sessions that were adorned with presentations by national and international scholars of eminence in each discipline on various sub themes.