Features

When Passion Became Profession: My Consulting and Training Journey

Published

2 months ago

2025/11/2

Thilina Walpola

LESSONS FROM MY CAREER: SYNTHESISING MANAGEMENT THEORY WITH PRACTICE – PART 25

A Review of the Past

Looking back, I realise how each phase of my career quietly shaped the consultant and trainer I would later become. In my previous articles, I spoke about the lessons I drew from every workplace I passed through — lessons that went far beyond technical knowledge. My journey began humbly at the State Engineering Corporation as a trainee, where curiosity and enthusiasm were my greatest assets. Before long, I found myself entrusted with the Building Research Centre, later known as the National Building Research Organisation. That early responsibility taught me how knowledge and leadership could combine to create impact.

From there, my path took me to the Tyre Corporation as an Industrial Engineer, then to the Sri Lanka Institute of Co-operative Management as General Manager, and later to the Ceylon Ceramics Corporation, again as General Manager. Each move added a new layer of understanding — of people, systems, and how organisations could be guided to perform better. My education in Engineering and Accountancy, complemented by my CIMA and MBA, gave me the frameworks. But it was the experiments, challenges, and day-to-day realities of those workplaces that gave me true insight.

So when I was appointed Chairman of the Employees’ Trust Fund Board at the age of 39, I didn’t feel overwhelmed. Instead, I sensed continuity — as though all my past experiences had prepared me for what lay ahead. The knowledge I had gathered from such diverse environments allowed me to approach problems with a calm sense of foresight. My three-month training in Japan added another dimension, deepening my appreciation of discipline, efficiency, and participative management — lessons that would later influence my consulting style profoundly.

Fate, however, had more lessons in store. The ETF held a substantial shareholding in Dankotuwa Porcelain, a company struggling to survive. Since no other Board member showed much interest, I was nominated to represent the ETF — and soon found myself serving as Chairman there as well. It was an unexpected turn, but one that taught me some of the most powerful lessons of my career: how to manage transformation, build morale, and navigate the complexities of privatisation — one of Sri Lanka’s first at the time. Looking back, that experience was a bridge — from managing organisations to understanding them deeply enough to guide others.

A New Chapter Begins

By 1994, I knew my days as Chairman of the Employees’ Trust Fund Board were numbered. The political winds were shifting — the incumbent government had already lost the Southern Provincial Council, and a change at the top seemed inevitable. I had often been invited to deliver lectures and conduct seminars — usually free of charge — and I realised how much I enjoyed the process of sharing knowledge and motivating others. So, even before the elections, I made up my mind: once my tenure ended, I would take a leap into consultancy and training.

That is how Productivity Techniques (Pvt) Ltd was born — a modest beginning, but one filled with excitement and purpose. When the elections were over and my resignation duly requested, I was already prepared to embark on this new adventure with optimism and energy.

My first series of seminars

Productivity improvement techniques at the enterprise level were one of my pet subjects. I booked a hall at the Colombo Hilton and advertised a seminar on the subject. I was also involved with the Japan-Sri Lanka Technical & Cultural Association (JASTECA) at the same time. I was nominated to attend a seminar in Japan, and left for the seminar after sending out circulars for my seminar. This was the first time Sri Lanka had a seminar of this nature on productivity. While I was in Japan, my wife, who was also a director of the new company and assigned to register participants and related matters, called me and said the registrations are now well over the hall’s capacity. We booked the hall for an extra date two weeks hence and informed the overflow participants. By the time I returned, we had enough participants for three seminars on that single advertisement.

Adapting to Technology

I gradually learned PowerPoint and even bought a digital camera to take pictures for my presentations. I migrated from packages such as WordStar, dBase, and Harvard Graphics to the new Microsoft packages. Although my first productivity seminars used transparent slides on overhead projectors, the latest PowerPoint programme was a hit. Many of the middle-level participants would stare in awe at the colourful slides projected onto the screen. Hitherto, they had only seen transparencies on overhead projectors. Laptops were not standard at the time, and I remember having to cart my desktop and monitor in suitcases to the hotels where I was holding the seminars.

The hotels told me that carrying these suitcases through the lobby was too ugly, and I had to use the service entrance to take them in. It was hard work. My wife handled all the hand-outs, logistics, and registrations. Hardly a participant realised that it was a husband-and-wife operation, and would refer to my wife as “your secretary”, “your girl”, or “your assistant” and so on. I maintained it the same way, being distant while giving her instructions, lest they conclude that my relationship with my “secretary” was a little too intimate.

I recommend to my participants that the most effective way to implement what they learn is to do it the very next day. My lessons were broken into small, manageable chunks. I was mainly teaching practical stuff and very little theory. My recommendations had some effect, as I recall that after one 5S seminar, the Chairman of a group who had sent participants from his garment factory called me to say that, the very next day, these participants were clearing up and arranging the workplace according to 5S principles. He also commented that this was the first seminar his people had attended where they actually implemented what they learned. This boosted my enthusiasm to continue with seminars and consultancy.

The Rise of 5S

To those unfamiliar with “5S”, it is a five-step programme to improve productivity, quality, reduce costs, improve on-time delivery, and improve safety and worker morale. It originated in Japan. It ranges from simple methods to more advanced techniques and could be implemented anywhere, even in homes. It creates a better-organised individual, too. 5S was soon becoming a hit.

I was invited by one of the garment factories in a group with several factories to deliver an in-house seminar on 5S. Fortunately, I made the presentation on PowerPoint. At the end, the CEO told me that their staff were very sophisticated and would not have even bothered to listen to me if I had used the old-fashioned overhead projectors and transparencies. I was invited to many of their other factories, and this group is still one of the best in Sri Lanka for 5S.

A great success was a ceramics ornamental company where I assisted in implementing 5S. In fact, the first sight one encountered upon entering the gate before 5S was the overflowing garbage bin. All these were changed, and the factory looked beautiful and well organised after 5S. A few weeks later, I arrived at a council meeting of the Employer’s Federation when I spotted some of the union leaders from this same factory. They had come to resolve a labour dispute with the management. Despite this issue, as they saw me, they came running up to me. They told me how excellent the factory was now, and that, most of all, they feel so relaxed and less tired compared to the previous scene, when the mess and disorderliness were the first sight in the morning and caused stress and tiredness even before they started work.

At another factory in Biyagama, where I addressed their 3,000 workers on 5S, I got a call from the management representative about three weeks later. He said the workers had implemented many of the 5S elements and, being proud of what they had done, wanted me to come and see their progress. I willingly obliged and noticed their unbelievable enthusiasm. The CEO and the senior management had implemented many novel initiatives to encourage implementation and motivate the staff. Leadership was the key.

Not All Were Successful

Not all my training was successful, though. At one factory in the Panadura industrial zone where I addressed all their staff, I found that many of them had glum faces. Still, I thought some elements of the 5S concepts would sink in. About two months later, the CEO called me and complained that nothing had happened after my training. I asked him what initiatives he took to promote and implement 5S, and he said, “I did nothing. I expected them to implement” I had to advise him politely that the responsibility to implement and make it successful is his, and it is his job to make it happen. He wasn’t very pleased. I suspected it right along when I first saw the glum faces. It wasn’t a very happy workplace. The leadership was poor.

I could see this right at the start from the participants’ faces in some of the places where I undertook training. They all look glum, they never ask questions, and it seems they were brought into the training hall like ‘lambs to slaughter’. It never would take root in such an environment. I could spot the vibrancy in others, how they joke, ask for clarifications, and make comments. The most vibrant organisation I addressed was a multinational, followed by the large garment group.

I was invited to address many elite Colombo schools on 5S, but there were no results. Perhaps it was because the elite schools offered many other sports and extracurricular opportunities and other distractions, and because they came from homes with servants and ayahs, and therefore had a mentality that they have the privilege to be disorganised and messy because 5S would be done by the servants. On the other hand 5S was taken up very well in rural schools an even spread to children’s homes..

Managing Change

I always advocated that the organisation implement a change management process before suddenly calling in an expert for a seminar or training programme. Senior management should paint a future vision for the organisation and surface what is lacking and what needs improvement. The lecture or seminar should be a remedy for the gaps identified, and the staff at every level must be involved in the exercise to implement and achieve the vision.

Many of the organisations I worked with were dynamic, constantly dissatisfied with the current state of affairs, and highly motivated to adopt new concepts and techniques. Some organisations that had tried many western-oriented concepts soon found that, though they were suitable at the strategic level, they failed to impress at the operational level. The Japanese concepts and techniques were not fads but very sound concepts and techniques that could be adapted and adopted after removing the Japanese culture-specific parts, such as lifetime employment and seniority-based promotions, and strengthening the culture-free parts and techniques that fit Sri Lanka’s socio-cultural milieu. Direct transplanting may be a disaster.

Those organisations that succeeded had several common characteristics, such as strong leadership, modern human resource practices, treating employees as partners with brains rather than mere pairs of hands, and respecting employees at all levels. In fact, during a course I followed at the Toyota Institute of Management in Nagoya, the lecturers kept repeating the need to respect employees at every level.

Facing Unethical Practices

I had my share of bad experiences. I had a full repertoire of seminars, ranging from Japanese techniques such as Quality Circles, 5S, Total Productive Maintenance, and Kaizen, to others such as designing Incentive Schemes, Benchmarking, Productivity Techniques, and Ergonomics.

There was one foreign organisation which wanted me to conduct all my seminars within a few months for the benefit of their clientele. Later, I found that it was the idea of their Sri Lankan coordinator. I had no reason to suspect, and besides, I was getting paid. Later, I found that the coordinator had resigned from this organisation, set up his own training outfit, and was conducting seminars on the same subjects using all my content and hand-outs. I had spent years developing these hand-outs, using my personal experiences as examples, too. He had everything tailor-made, copying all my hard work. The worst was when I was conducting a seminar; one participant accused me of plagiarism, and I had no choice but to enlighten him that it was the other way around.

Even if I repeat a seminar a few months later, I always search the internet for new material and new concepts. While perusing the internet one day, I suddenly stumbled across a complete hand-out for my Productivity seminar, including my graphics and images, intact on one of the productivity sites. I recognised the slides at once, but only my name was missing. A well-known consultant had inserted his name after removing mine. I knew him, and he was at that time a consultant to an international organisation too. My initial fury made me prepare a letter to the international organisation. Still, later, I decided to let it pass and drop the matter. I had mentioned this to some of my friends. This hand-out was later removed from the site. Since then, I only provide PDF versions for making copies. It was a shock to learn the hard way that even the so-called respectable trainers would resort to such unethical practices.

Laughter Along the Way

I have had many humorous experiences, which made my lectures even livelier. Addressing a group of plantation managers one day, I explained the first step of 5S: the advanced concept is to reduce working capital, but the simple idea to start with is to reduce clutter and get rid of unwanted items. The first step to calming and relaxing your mind is to have an organised wallet, with only currency bills, arranged in order of denominations, and no unwanted chits or bills. I exhorted the participants to “always keep your wallet clean and organised”, whereupon one participant raised his hand and said, “My wallet is always clean, Mr Wijesinha. My wife cleans it regularly, but there is only one problem, she cleans out the cash and leaves the chits behind”.

At another seminar, I was talking about cleaning of machines and equipment daily and how that concept originated in Japan after World War 2. The war had destroyed most of the factories. When it ended, the Japanese government instructed the factories to preserve the remaining machinery and treat them like family treasures, because the population would otherwise starve. Don’t let there be breakdowns, the instructions said. Their reputation for one of the lowest machine breakdown rates in the world stemmed from this initiative.

The story goes that Japanese factory workers would clean and lubricate the machines, just as they would look after their wives. Some would even go so far as to give the machine the wife’s name and paste it on the machine. Every morning, the operator would worship the machine and look after it with tender loving care. When I told this story, one participant raised his hand and says “I would not encourage it in my factory, sir, because what if the operator has had a fight with the wife in the morning and comes to work furious with the wife, and sees the machine with the wife’s name, I am sure my machine would be in for some rough treatment“. Another participant says he, too, has reservations about this method and explains that if the regular operator is on leave and a relief operator works on the machine, it will be a problem, especially on the night shift when the regular operator would be having nightmares thinking about who is working the machine with his wife’s name on it!

I recall the first “5S” seminar I had at the Hilton. It was attended by many CEOs and other senior executives from the private sector. After the seminar, I was relaxing at home after dinner when the phone rang. It was the wife of a participant. Of course, I knew this family well. She asked me, “My husband came for your seminar today. What on earth did you teach him? Since he arrived home, he has been clearing out the cupboards and throwing out his old clothes, keeping his shoes and slippers in a particular corner. He was such a disorganised man earlier, and now he is totally transformed.

A senior administrator was appointed chairman of a government entity and I was asked to address the staff on 5S which I did. The staff received my lecture well. A week later he called me and said he had been asked to resign by the Minister after a dispute, and then he jokingly said “It’s all your fault. Remember you said the first step is to get rid of unwanted things. The Minister implemented it to the letter and got rid of me“.

I enjoyed my consultancy and training, and I am so proud that these small efforts have spread like wildfire, making many government and private-sector organisations more productive and competitive. Today, 5S is very popular nationwide.

My next episode will feature more stories about how I became involved with the government in its National Productivity drive.

by Sunil G Wijesinha
(Consultant on Productivity and Japanese Management Techniques
Retired Chairman/Director of several Listed and Unlisted companies.
Awardee of the APO Regional Award for promoting Productivity in the Asia Pacific Region
Recipient of the “Order of the Rising Sun, Gold and Silver Rays” from the Government of Japan.
He can be contacted through email at bizex.seminarsandconsulting@gmail.com)

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Features

Sustaining good governance requires good systems

Published

12 hours ago

2025/12/23

Sahan Weerasooriya

A prominent feature of the first year of the NPP government is that it has not engaged in the institutional reforms which was expected of it. This observation comes in the context of the extraordinary mandate with which the government was elected and the high expectations that accompanied its rise to power. When in opposition and in its election manifesto, the JVP and NPP took a prominent role in advocating good governance systems for the country. They insisted on constitutional reform that included the abolition of the executive presidency and the concentration of power it epitomises, the strengthening of independent institutions that overlook key state institutions such as the judiciary, public service and police, and the reform or repeal of repressive laws such as the PTA and the Online Safety Act.

The transformation of a political party that averaged between three to five percent of the popular vote into one that currently forms the government with a two thirds majority in parliament is a testament to the faith that the general population placed in the JVP/ NPP combine. This faith was the outcome of more than three decades of disciplined conduct in the aftermath of the bitter experience of the 1988 to 1990 period of JVP insurrection. The manner in which the handful of JVP parliamentarians engaged in debate with well researched critiques of government policy and actions, and their service in times of disaster such as the tsunami of 2004 won them the trust of the people. This faith was bolstered by the Aragalaya movement which galvanized the citizens against the ruling elites of the past.

In this context, the long delay to repeal the Prevention of Terrorism Act which has earned notoriety for its abuse especially against ethnic and religious minorities, has been a disappointment to those who value human rights. So has been the delay in appointing an Auditor General, so important in ensuring accountability for the money expended by the state. The PTA has a long history of being used without restraint against those deemed to be anti-state which, ironically enough, included the JVP in the period 1988 to 1990. The draft Protection of the State from Terrorism Act (PSTA), published in December 2025, is the latest attempt to repeal and replace the PTA. Unfortunately, the PSTA largely replicates the structure, logic and dangers of previous failed counter terrorism bills, including the Counter Terrorism Act of 2018 and the Anti Terrorism Act proposed in 2023.

Misguided Assumption

Despite its stated commitment to rule of law and fundamental rights, the draft PTSA reproduces many of the core defects of the PTA. In a preliminary statement, the Centre for Policy Alternatives has observed among other things that “if there is a Detention Order made against the person, then in combination, the period of remand and detention can extend up to two years. This means that a person can languish in detention for up to two years without being charged with a crime. Such a long period again raises questions of the power of the State to target individuals, exacerbated by Sri Lanka’s history of long periods of remand and detention, which has contributed to abuse and violence.” Human Rights lawyer Ermiza Tegal has warned against the broad definition of terrorism under the proposed law: “The definition empowers state officials to term acts of dissent and civil disobedience as ‘terrorism’ and will lawfully permit disproportionate and excessive responses.” The legitimate and peaceful protests against abuse of power by the authorities cannot be classified as acts of terror.

The willingness to retain such powers reflects the surmise that the government feels that keeping in place the structures that come from the past is to their benefit, as they can utilise those powers in a crisis. Due to the strict discipline that exists within the JVP/NPP at this time there may be an assumption that those the party appoints will not abuse their trust. However, the country’s experience with draconian laws designed for exceptional circumstances demonstrates that they tend to become tools of routine governance. On the plus side, the government has given two months for public comment which will become meaningful if the inputs from civil society actors are taken into consideration.

Worldwide experience has repeatedly demonstrated that integrity at the level of individual leaders, while necessary, is not sufficient to guarantee good governance over time. This is where the absence of institutional reform becomes significant. The aftermath of Cyclone Ditwah in particular has necessitated massive procurements of emergency relief which have to be disbursed at maximum speed. There are also significant amounts of foreign aid flowing into the country to help it deal with the relief and recovery phase. There are protocols in place that need to be followed and monitored so that a fiasco like the disappearance of tsunami aid in 2004 does not recur. To the government’s credit there are no such allegations at the present time. But precautions need to be in place, and those precautions depend less on trust in individuals than on the strength and independence of oversight institutions.

Inappropriate Appointments

It is in this context that the government’s efforts to appoint its own preferred nominees to the Auditor General’s Department has also come as a disappointment to civil society groups. The unsuitability of the latest presidential nominee has given rise to the surmise that this nomination was a time buying exercise to make an acting appointment. For the fourth time, the Constitutional Council refused to accept the president’s nominee. The term of the three independent civil society members of the Constitutional Council ends in January which would give the government the opportunity to appoint three new members of its choice and get its way in the future.

The failure to appoint a permanent Auditor General has created an institutional vacuum at a critical moment. The Auditor General acts as a watchdog, ensuring effective service delivery promoting integrity in public administration and providing an independent review of the performance and accountability. Transparency International has observed “The sequence of events following the retirement of the previous Auditor General points to a broader political inertia and a governance failure. Despite the clear constitutional importance of the role, the appointment process has remained protracted and opaque, raising serious questions about political will and commitment to accountability.”

It would appear that the government leadership takes the position they have been given the mandate to govern the country which requires implementation by those they have confidence in. This may explain their approach to the appointment (or non-appointment) at this time of the Auditor General. Yet this approach carries risks. Institutions are designed to function beyond the lifespan of any one government and to protect the public interest even when those in power are tempted to act otherwise. The challenge and opportunity for the NPP government is to safeguard independent institutions and enact just laws, so that the promise of system change endures beyond personalities and political cycles.

by Jehan Perera

Features

General education reforms: What about language and ethnicity?

Published

12 hours ago

2025/12/23

Sahan Weerasooriya

A new batch arrived at our Faculty again. Students representing almost all districts of the country remind me once again of the wonderful opportunity we have for promoting social and ethnic cohesion at our universities. Sadly, however, many students do not interact with each other during the first few semesters, not only because they do not speak each other’s language(s), but also because of the fear and distrust that still prevails among communities in our society.

General education reform presents an opportunity to explore ways to promote social and ethnic cohesion. A school curriculum could foster shared values, empathy, and critical thinking, through social studies and civics education, implement inclusive language policies, and raise critical awareness about our collective histories. Yet, the government’s new policy document, Transforming General Education in Sri Lanka 2025, leaves us little to look forward to in this regard.

The policy document points to several “salient” features within it, including: 1) a school credit system to quantify learning; 2) module-based formative and summative assessments to replace end-of-term tests; 3) skills assessment in Grade 9 consisting of a ‘literacy and numeracy test’ and a ‘career interest test’; 4) a comprehensive GPA-based reporting system spanning the various phases of education; 5) blended learning that combines online with classroom teaching; 6) learning units to guide students to select their preferred career pathways; 7) technology modules; 8) innovation labs; and 9) Early Childhood Education (ECE). Notably, social and ethnic cohesion does not appear in this list. Here, I explore how the proposed curriculum reforms align (or do not align) with the NPP’s pledge to inculcate “[s]afety, mutual understanding, trust and rights of all ethnicities and religious groups” (p.127), in their 2024 Election Manifesto.

Language/ethnicity in the present curriculum

The civil war ended over 15 years ago, but our general education system has done little to bring ethnic communities together. In fact, most students still cannot speak in the “second national language” (SNL) and textbooks continue to reinforce negative stereotyping of ethnic minorities, while leaving out crucial elements of our post-independence history.

Although SNL has been a compulsory subject since the 1990s, the hours dedicated to SNL are few, curricula poorly developed, and trained teachers few (Perera, 2025). Perhaps due to unconscious bias and for ideological reasons, SNL is not valued by parents and school communities more broadly. Most students, who enter our Faculty, only have basic reading/writing skills in SNL, apart from the few Muslim and Tamil students who schooled outside the North and the East; they pick up SNL by virtue of their environment, not the school curriculum.

Regardless of ethnic background, most undergraduates seem to be ignorant about crucial aspects of our country’s history of ethnic conflict. The Grade 11 history textbook, which contains the only chapter on the post-independence period, does not mention the civil war or the events that led up to it. While the textbook valourises ‘Sinhala Only’ as an anti-colonial policy (p.11), the material covering the period thereafter fails to mention the anti-Tamil riots, rise of rebel groups, escalation of civil war, and JVP insurrections. The words “Tamil” and “Muslim” appear most frequently in the chapter, ‘National Renaissance,’ which cursorily mentions “Sinhalese-Muslim riots” vis-à-vis the Temperance Movement (p.57). The disenfranchisement of the Malaiyaha Tamils and their history are completely left out.

Given the horrifying experiences of war and exclusion experienced by many of our peoples since independence, and because most students still learn in mono-ethnic schools having little interaction with the ‘Other’, it is not surprising that our undergraduates find it difficult to mix across language and ethnic communities. This environment also creates fertile ground for polarizing discourses that further divide and segregate students once they enter university.

More of the same?

How does Transforming General Education seek to address these problems? The introduction begins on a positive note: “The proposed reforms will create citizens with a critical consciousness who will respect and appreciate the diversity they see around them, along the lines of ethnicity, religion, gender, disability, and other areas of difference” (p.1). Although National Education Goal no. 8 somewhat problematically aims to “Develop a patriotic Sri Lankan citizen fostering national cohesion, national integrity, and national unity while respecting cultural diversity (p. 2), the curriculum reforms aim to embed values of “equity, inclusivity, and social justice” (p. 9) through education. Such buzzwords appear through the introduction, but are not reflected in the reforms.

Learning SNL is promoted under Language and Literacy (Learning Area no. 1) as “a critical means of reconciliation and co-existence”, but the number of hours assigned to SNL are minimal. For instance, at primary level (Grades 1 to 5), only 0.3 to 1 hour is allocated to SNL per week. Meanwhile, at junior secondary level (Grades 6 to 9), out of 35 credits (30 credits across 15 essential subjects that include SNL, history and civics; 3 credits of further learning modules; and 2 credits of transversal skills modules (p. 13, pp.18-19), SNL receives 1 credit (10 hours) per term. Like other essential subjects, SNL is to be assessed through formative and summative assessments within modules. As details of the Grade 9 skills assessment are not provided in the document, it is unclear whether SNL assessments will be included in the ‘Literacy and numeracy test’. At senior secondary level – phase 1 (Grades 10-11 – O/L equivalent), SNL is listed as an elective.

Refreshingly, the policy document does acknowledge the detrimental effects of funding cuts in the humanities and social sciences, and highlights their importance for creating knowledge that could help to “eradicate socioeconomic divisions and inequalities” (p.5-6). It goes on to point to the salience of the Humanities and Social Sciences Education under Learning Area no. 6 (p.12):

“Humanities and Social Sciences education is vital for students to develop as well as critique various forms of identities so that they have an awareness of their role in their immediate communities and nation. Such awareness will allow them to contribute towards the strengthening of democracy and intercommunal dialogue, which is necessary for peace and reconciliation. Furthermore, a strong grounding in the Humanities and Social Sciences will lead to equity and social justice concerning caste, disability, gender, and other features of social stratification.”

Sadly, the seemingly progressive philosophy guiding has not moulded the new curriculum. Subjects that could potentially address social/ethnic cohesion, such as environmental studies, history and civics, are not listed as learning areas at the primary level. History is allocated 20 hours (2 credits) across four years at junior secondary level (Grades 6 to 9), while only 10 hours (1 credit) are allocated to civics. Meanwhile, at the O/L, students will learn 5 compulsory subjects (Mother Tongue, English, Mathematics, Science, and Religion and Value Education), and 2 electives—SNL, history and civics are bunched together with the likes of entrepreneurship here. Unlike the compulsory subjects, which are allocated 140 hours (14 credits or 70 hours each) across two years, those who opt for history or civics as electives would only have 20 hours (2 credits) of learning in each. A further 14 credits per term are for further learning modules, which will allow students to explore their interests before committing to a A/L stream or career path.

With the distribution of credits across a large number of subjects, and the few credits available for SNL, history and civics, social/ethnic cohesion will likely remain on the back burner. It appears to be neglected at primary level, is dealt sparingly at junior secondary level, and relegated to electives in senior years. This means that students will be able to progress through their entire school years, like we did, with very basic competencies in SNL and little understanding of history.

Going forward

Whether the students who experience this curriculum will be able to “resist and respond to hegemonic, divisive forces that pose a threat to social harmony and multicultural coexistence” (p.9) as anticipated in the policy, is questionable. Education policymakers and others must call for more attention to social and ethnic cohesion in the curriculum. However, changes to the curriculum would only be meaningful if accompanied by constitutional reform, abolition of policies, such as the Prevention of Terrorism Act (and its proxies), and other political changes.

For now, our school system remains divided by ethnicity and religion. Research from conflict-ridden societies suggests that lack of intercultural exposure in mono-ethnic schools leads to ignorance, prejudice, and polarized positions on politics and national identity. While such problems must be addressed in broader education reform efforts that also safeguard minority identities, the new curriculum revision presents an opportune moment to move this agenda forward.

(Ramya Kumar is attached to the Department of Community and Family Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, University of Jaffna).

Kuppi is a politics and pedagogy happening on the margins of the lecture hall that parodies, subverts, and simultaneously reaffirms social hierarchies.

by Ramya Kumar

Features

Top 10 Most Popular Festive Songs

Published

12 hours ago

2025/12/23

Sahan Weerasooriya

Certain songs become ever-present every December, and with Christmas just two days away, I thought of highlighting the Top 10 Most Popular Festive Songs.

The famous festive songs usually feature timeless classics like ‘White Christmas,’ ‘Silent Night,’ and ‘Jingle Bells,’ alongside modern staples like Mariah Carey’s ‘All I Want for Christmas Is You,’ Wham’s ‘Last Christmas,’ and Brenda Lee’s ‘Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree.’

The following renowned Christmas songs are celebrated for their lasting impact and festive spirit:

* ‘White Christmas’ — Bing Crosby

The most famous holiday song ever recorded, with estimated worldwide sales exceeding 50 million copies. It remains the best-selling single of all time.

* ‘All I Want for Christmas Is You’ — Mariah Carey

A modern anthem that dominates global charts every December. As of late 2025, it holds an 18x Platinum certification in the US and is often ranked as the No. 1 popular holiday track.

Mariah Carey: ‘All I Want for Christmas Is You’

* ‘Silent Night’ — Traditional

Widely considered the quintessential Christmas carol, it is valued for its peaceful melody and has been recorded by hundreds of artistes, most famously by Bing Crosby.

* ‘Jingle Bells’ — Traditional

One of the most universally recognised and widely sung songs globally, making it a staple for children and festive gatherings.

* ‘Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree’ — Brenda Lee

Recorded when Lee was just 13, this rock ‘n’ roll favourite has seen a massive resurgence in the 2020s, often rivaling Mariah Carey for the top spot on the Billboard Hot 100.

* ‘Last Christmas’ — Wham!

A bittersweet ’80s pop classic that has spent decades in the top 10 during the holiday season. It recently achieved 7x Platinum status in the UK.

* ‘Jingle Bell Rock’ — Bobby Helms

A festive rockabilly standard released in 1957 that remains a staple of holiday radio and playlists.

* ‘The Christmas Song (Chestnuts Roasting on an Open Fire)’— Nat King Cole

Known for its smooth, warm vocals, this track is frequently cited as the ultimate Christmas jazz standard.

Wham! ‘Last Christmas’

* ‘It’s the Most Wonderful Time of the Year’ — Andy Williams

Released in 1963, this high-energy big band track is famous for capturing the “hectic merriment” of the season.

* ‘Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer’ — Gene Autry

A beloved narrative song that has sold approximately 25 million copies worldwide, cementing the character’s place in Christmas folklore.

Other perennial favourites often in the mix:

* ‘Feliz Navidad’ – José Feliciano

* ‘A Holly Jolly Christmas’ – Burl Ives

* ‘Let It Snow! Let It Snow! Let It Snow!’ – Frank Sinatra

Let me also add that this Thursday’s ‘SceneAround’ feature (25th December) will be a Christmas edition, highlighting special Christmas and New Year messages put together by well-known personalities for readers of The Island.