Address by the President of EDC to the Directors and Members – 26.01.2025

Warm welcome to all the existing Board of Directors, to all Members of EDC

 and our Company Secretary, Mr. Ravindran

This meeting is actually a continuation of the adjourned BOD meeting as well as the AGM. I am making this presentation for directors and members.

Membership history

The first AGM consisted of only the following 8 founder members:

N. Vethanayahan

S. Krishnananthan

M. Sooriasegaram

N. Satchithananthan

Dr. Selvaruby Skantharajah

Vethanayaki Perinpanathan

Dr. Navaratnam

S.Satkunarajah (Ex-officio)

All except N. Satchithananthan became the founding directors of EDC.  Satchithananthan declined the unanimous invitation by all members to become a director. Instead, he wanted to be a non-voting Patron, so he remained as such to this day as per his wish.

The general membership consists of the following 20 members (all have duly completed our application forms agreeing to conform to the articles of association of EDC):

M. Sooriasegaram

N. Kanthathasan

V. Perinpanathan

P. Pulavan

N. Bhavan

Dr. S. Skantharajah

Dr. B. Thanabalan 

A. Sooriakumar

R. Varatheswaran

N. Satchithananthan

S. Satkunarajah

Dr. S. Navaratnam

S. Ramanathan

S. Mohan

R. Jeyasutharshan

R. Kailavasan

M. Vinoth

K. Arulnithy

K. Pratheeswaran

New applicants will be approved as members in this meeting.

Our membership has now increased from 8 to 20. For a charitable company with a turnover of nearly Rs. 12 million to this day, this membership is quite small. This is because our work is 100% voluntary and therefore attracts only people with conviction and commitment to serve the community. We actually need the voluntary participation of many more.

Our supporting Committee in Britain consists of the following voluntary members:

Dr. Navaratnam

Dr. Paramanathan

Dr. Thevanathan

S. Balasingam

W. Thayalan

A. Thevasagayam

Mrs. D. Kirubaharan

Mrs. S. Pathmanathan

N. Satchithananthan

V. Sivalingam

S. Parimelagar

The work of this supporting committee is primarily to raise the necessary funds for us to carry on our work here without interruption until such time pre-school education becomes part of Sri Lanka’s Free Education System. EDC needs to articulate our needs by submitting well substantiated and convincing project proposals to the UK Committee for all our projects. 

Our advisory committee

Prof. A. Atputharajah

R. Varatheswaran

Dr. S. Shanmugathasan

Dr. A. Kadirgamar

V. Alagaratnam

I. Kailasapathy

N. Satchithananthan

The advisers are mainly academics attached to UOV and UOJ with whom we have been working closely for some time. 

We are grateful to every one of the above directors, members and advisers for their commitment and farsightedness to uplift our community sustainably through developing a world class preschool education, which in fact is the best investment one can think of, for a creative and productive society.

Brief history of Education Development Consortium (EDC)

Registered as a Private Company Limited by Guarantee Without Profits, on the 8^th of August 2023, just about 16 months ago, with the following objectives:

1. Facilitate the promotion of early childhood development until the child enters primary school for formal education
2. Acquiring competency levels in English Language at secondary level for furthering ‘STEAM’ education to achieve high quality of life for all
3. Sharing and disseminating contemporary knowledge, skills and attitudes among all stakeholders for development of cognitive skills.

I am stating these objectives for the benefit of members who may not have had a chance to read through the Articles of Association, which is our governing document.  

Role of Company Secretary: 

He or she is responsible for organizing meetings, sending notices for BOD meetings and AGM, conducting meetings in compliance with company regulations, taking minutes of meetings, getting the company audited by a Charted Accountant and ensuring that the company is managed according to company laws and the articles of association. I am explaining or defining the Company Secretary’s role so that everyone understands what the law says pertaining to companies registered with Company House, as is the case with our company. The company is a legal entity and therefore we must act accordingly. We must act openly, transparently and accountably to safeguard EDC’s integrity.   

Farewell to two of our founder members

It is with regret I wish to inform that our founder director and founder President, Mr. Vethanayahan, now serving so brilliantly as the Governor of Northern Province, left us last year for personal reasons. Mr. Krishnananthan, a very senior civil servant, an accountant by profession and a well-known trainer of public servants, intellectual and educator, also a founder director, left us last year due to health issues and sadly on 13.01.25 he passed away. I wish to thank both of them for their services in the formative years of EDC.

What we have achieved so far?

I wish to now share with you information on what we have managed to achieve so far and then say a few words about our plans for the future, subject to your approval of course. I welcome new ideas and proposals from members.  

Although EDC was registered as a company with the Company House in August 2023, we have started to function unofficially as EDC from the beginning of 2023. Before that we did function loosely as individuals to promote English Language proficiency in schools employing the services of the British Council.

1. We trained English School Teachers to uplift their English Language knowledge and teaching skills, spending over Rs. 20 million. This turned out to be a very successful venture according to the NP Education Department. Mr. Varatheswaran, the then Secretary for Education in the NP, is here with us today, to endorse this fact. 

2. We launched EDC in August 2023 and started functioning officially with zero funds. Satchi donated Rs.146, 250 to cover the cost of company registration. Soorisegaram’s donation of Rs.50, 000 was used to open the current account and deposit account for EDC. The company is totally dependent on donations and all our work is voluntary. We don’t operate  like an NGO, receiving salary and perks.
3. We signed an MOA with UOJ under which we are running a 15-month preschool diploma program for 120 selected preschool teachers, based on a curriculum jointly prepared by EDC and UOJ. Satchi approached UOJ VC and got his consent for this. Dr. Selvaruby Skantharajah played a key role on behalf of EDC to design the curricula, to prepare the selection criteria of teachers, written examinations and interview processes etc. in collaboration with UOJ. 

4. President Sooriasegaram entered into negotiations with VC and other staff assigned by the UOJ, verbally and through written communications to finally agree on a detailed program. Satchi also actively participated in these discussions initially. UOJ provided their cost breakdown and their resource list, rather reluctantly and taking several months. Fees were set at Rs. 60, 000 per student. 

5. UOJ’s first batch of 120 teacher students for the diploma course was selected through written exam and interviews. 60 of them are now following the diploma program at Kilinochchi Campus and another 60 following at Jaffna campus. First Semester started on 15.09.24 and   finished on 08.12.24, second semester is programmed from 14.12.24 to 09.03.25, third semester from 15.03.25 to 15.06.25 and the fourth and last semester from 21.06.25 to 16.11.25  

6. Payment to UOJ: Total payable = Rs. 7.2 M in 2 instalments. Sooriasegaram submitted a project proposal to a Malaysian donor and successfully got in principle agreement for this donation on the basis the donor will release the first instalment of Rs.3.6 M first and release the second instalment only on satisfactory completion of the first year (2 semesters) on 09.03.25. I paid the first instalment of Rs.3.6 M on 06.09.2024 before the start of the program. UOJ is now insisting that we pay the second instalment of Rs.3.6 M before 31.01.25, although the due date is 15.03.25, causing a cashflow crisis for us. I am, however, hopeful of securing this Rs.3.6 M very shortly. It is becoming increasingly difficult to work with UOJ but we have no alternative at present. 

7. Five months after we started our work with UOJ, Dr. Skantharajah negotiated with UOV to start a similar diploma program for 40 students and this was inaugurated on 23.06.24, 3 months ahead of UOJ. UOV program is going extremely well and our working relationship with them is excellent. The VC of UOV has even agreed to serve in our advisory committee. I paid both instalments (Rs.1M and Rs. 1.4 M) to UOV on the due dates. But we really struggled to raise this Rs.2.4 M. The first Rs.1 M was in fact paid out of the funds reserved for UOJ. UOJ’s unduly long delay in starting their program made this payment possible.

In February 2025, UOV intends to start their second batch and we need to now fast track our search for funds to pay for 50 students at Rs. 60,000, a total of Rs. 3.0 M. Satchi has promised to raise this fund through the UK Committee. Based on Satchi’s assurance, I have asked UOV to go ahead with the second batch. I am very impressed by the planned and efficient approach of UOV and they are also easily approachable and very good at keeping us informed. 

It should be remembered how much we struggled to raise the Rs. 2.4 M, needed for the UOV program from UK donors. That was a stressful period for me, not knowing how I was going to keep our promises. 

Since Dr. Skantharajah is managing UOV program on behalf of EDC, I would like to ask her to kindly sum up the current situation, in case I have missed anything.

8. Book launch: EDC released a book entitled ‘Preschool trends for the 21^st Century’ on 13.10.2024. This is in fact a collection of articles, some of which already appeared in our magazine ‘Kalvi Chudar’ previously. The cost of printing and launching this book came to Rs. Rs. 1, 089, 330.  Satchi raised the necessary funds for this through his personal efforts.

9. Likewise, Satchi raised funds through his own efforts and organized a ‘Motivational Speech’ event in some schools and higher education institutions in the NP from 11.03.24 to 14.03.24. The event cost us Rs. 316, 602. The speaker was Dr. Saranya Jeyakumar, a psychologist by profession from Tamil Nadu. The feedback I got from many people was negative, good attractive presenter but lacked content and therefore the effort and costs incurred cannot be justified. A research study on the effectiveness or otherwise of such events by a senior Psychology lecturer Dr. Kajavinthan from UOJ with the support of 20 of his final year students, had to aborted due to not having any contact details of the students, who attended her motivational speeches.

Future Plans

In line with our vision, Satchi is proposing to start a similar diploma program with the Eastern University for the children in the EP, whose mother tongue is Tamil. There is no ground work to be done by us for this, because EU had been running this course already for a few years and was stopped temporarily. They are resuming the diploma program this year. Their program is a one-year program and the fee per student is Rs. 43, 000 per student, which is more affordable. Likewise, we need to start a preschool diploma program in the Hill Country which is historically the most neglected region educationally as well as economically. These are additional commitments to what we have already undertaken with UOJ and UOV. This has been our vision from the start. We need to make a collective decision on this today.  

So, there are big challenges ahead for us. Our programs are very ambitious indeed. Fund raising is the key issue facing us and without funds there is no way of embarking on these projects. We are trying to engage in work involving mega expenditures, which is really the function of the state, because the state has so far failed to address this issue. So, in my view, we must begin to engage with the appropriate ministry to take this program forward. We are fortunate to have a Minister of Education and Prime Minister, who is also fully committed to developing pre-school education along the lines we are currently thinking. In 2 to 3 years’ time, when the economy becomes healthy, we can expect the government to take on preschool education as part of Sri Lanka’s Free Education System. Until then we should try to at least sustain our current programs with UOJ and UOV. There are other options too but I would like to know members’ opinion in this matter.

EDC Finances

Currently we do not have sufficient funds to meet our commitments, especially to UOJ. We require Rs.6.6 M to meet our immediate commitments to UOJ and UOV.

Detailed finance report will be submitted today by our treasurer, Mr. Bhavan

I wanted to give a clear picture of the current situation to the directors and members to be able to determine our future strategy and plans. I thank you for patiently listening to my presentation and if you have any questions or need any clarifications, please feel free to raise them.

As we go through the agenda items one by one, a clearer and fuller picture will emerge and at the end, under any other business, we can engage in discussion. 

Thank you.

M. Sooriasegaram

President of EDC