Oldest Buddhist school badly in need of uplift
View(s):As the oldest Buddhist school in the country, Sri Piyartatne MV in Dodanduwa, will complete 150 years next year, with area residents and the school’s well-wishers are deeply concerned that the school is being neglected and not given the due prominence it deserves.
The state of the school which, today, has about 150 students and 7 teachers, is a far cry from its heyday, when there were around 800 students and a large number of teachers to guide them.
The school was founded in 1869 and was registered as a government school in 1874. It was declared a protected site in 2006, and was the first place that Henry Steel Olcott visited and assisted, when he arrived in the country, while the Tibetan monk Mahinda Thera was among those who also served in this school.
However, residents say the school is seriously in need of state assistance so that, it can be preserved for posterity and given the due place it deserves.
Amarajeewa De Silva Rajakaruna who is among those working to draw attention to the plight of the school, has written to President Maithripala Sirisena and Education Minister Akila Viraj Kariyawasam, appealing for their intervention to safeguard the school.