M.D.Gunasena & Company Ltd. has been synonymous with education throughout its illustrious 97 year history. As a publisher, printer and a bookseller to the nation, since its inception in 1913 it has sought to widen the boundaries of knowledge and education.
At present M.D. Gunasena is in its 3rd generation and has further diversified their services into various avenues of business and proudly speaks of its sister companies. These include M.D.Gunasena Printers, Destinations, Finance & Investments Ltd, Oasis International School, International Teacher Training School and M.D.Gunasena Digital Centre.
 |
 |
| Mr. Janith Uththamawadu, Publishing Executive |
Ms. Shiraza Jaldin, Marketing Coordinator |
Almost completing a century of service to the nation a few years ago M.D.Gunasena held its ground as the second largest bookstore in the world. Best known for their signature book publications such as Kumarodaya, Heenseraya, Hathpana and Magulkema etc … today the company has printed and published countless publications out of which the Malalasekera Dictionary and Q & A book series holds a prominent place.
The Sunday Times Supplements Desk spoke to Ms. Shiraza Jaldin, Marketing Coordinator and Mr. Janith Uththamawadu, Publishing Executive of M.D.Gunasena to find out more about the 'Malalasekera Dictionary' and the 'Q & A' series.
"We taught the nation to read " our tagline itself says in a nutshell the vision and mission of our company. We are proud to have become one of the leading knowledge providers with 19 branches in operation island wide. We never compromise on the quality of our products, which is why we have won over the trust and confidence of a large client base throughout Sri Lanka and the overseas. At M.D.
Gunasena we are passionate about imparting knowledge and this passion helps us create and implement new ideas to improve our services accordingly to suit the current world and the requirement of our customers", says Ms. Jaldin.
Speaking on the 'Malalasekera Dictionary' Mr. Uththamawadu said, "Our dictionary came in to market in 1948 with the dawn of Independence. We are proud to say that this dictionary is the most sold out book publication in the country at present. The brainchild of the dictionary is Professor G.P.Malalasekera, who had vast knowledge in many areas and was able to converse in 16 languages. The dictionary contains close to 85,000 words and is the 5th revised edition, which includes 20,000 new words. It is currently being modified to a DVD format, which suits the modern day requirement.
The dictionary in addition to being user friendly is the number one dictionary in Sri Lanka and one of the best in the world."
The M.D. Gunasena Q & A series, targeted towards the Ordinary Level students have become immensely popular during a very short period of time. With the recent syllabus change that took place in year 2008, Ordinary Level students did not have access to proper model question papers for reference. As the pioneering publisher of many educational books, M.D.Gunasena made it their mission to provide proper and effective model papers that would be useful to this particular segment of students.
"Initially we introduced the Q & A series for 16 Ordinary Level subjects in the year 2008. The feedback that we received from the students who faced the exam that year was very encouraging. The Q & A series is developed by some of the best renowned teacher training consultants in the country with high quality prints and book covers specially designed to suit each subject category.
Therefore we have been able to keep the standard of our model papers inline with the current educational syllabus and requirements prevalent in the country. These publications were in such high demand that we were compelled to reprint several times over" further stated Mr. Uththamawadu.
M.D. Gunasena has also formed a partnership to provide the Collins Dictionary in addition to offering a selection of very useful pocket dictionaries as well as the Sinhala - Sinhala Dictionary compiled by Professor Harischandra Wijethunga. Having become the most trusted bookseller in the country, M.D.Gunasena has set the standards high with regard to publishing, printing and as a quality bookseller whilst dominating a number of other fields and services as well. |
E-mail
