New era dawns for Ar Rahmath Primary School, Galewela
Saturday, 8 February 2014 00:05
-
- {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}
The newly-constructed building of Ar Rahmath Primary School Namadagahawaththa off Galewela was declared open by the Founder of Mohan Lal Grero Foundation and Deputy Minister of Education Mohan Lal Grero.
Grero during one of his personal visits to a far off village school at Namadagahawaththa off Galewela about 130 km away from Colombo saw the plight of the school there and offered to construct the upper floor of a building on his own expense.
CP/ G/ Ar Rahmath P. S. is the biggest Muslim Primary School in the Galewala Education Zone. There are 470 students in this School. It was previously a Part of CP/ G/ Al Furkan MMV which now functions as a Secondary School.
Addressing the opening ceremony, Principal of Ar Rahmath Primary School S.H. Ameen said: “The school badly needed classroom facilities. In an era where hatred and hostility develop by roused communal feelings to create a rift between otherwise harmonious communities, it is natural some village folks wonder why Mohan Lal Grero came forward to help this school; he is neither a Muslim nor he has voters around this area though he is a politician. Nor did he speak their language. If he aimed to fish for votes he has so much to do in his own area. They do not know or understand that he saw only humanity when he found poor children learn under temporary sheds and verandas. He saw the kids as they were as the children of this land, not as ‘Muslim-kids’ or ‘out-station-kids’. It is a 99% Muslim village and the school is one of nine Muslim schools among 102 Sinhala medium schools; he is a pure Buddhist. His broadmindedness is exemplary to many.
“The school does not have enough classroom facilities. It was a long term problem. Thanks to the Deputy Minister of Education Mohan Lal Grero (he was then in charge of Education Monitoring), he offered to help building the upper floor of a building of which only the ground floor was constructed by a JAICA Project in 2006 and was stopped due to lack of funds. Presently, two million rupees worth construction work is going on.”
The Principal, teachers, students, parents, the School Development Society, and the Board of Trustees of the Village Grand Mosque praise and give their fullest cooperation to this work. In response to the request of the school community the President of the Mosque Board of Trustees, S.M. Zameer assured that he is willing to give whatever help for this work, and agreed to observe the work to ensure that this building work be done with minimum expenses.
S.H. Ameen, the Principal of the school, and A.M. Mujahideen, the Principal of the Secondary school, say that this work has been instrumental in motivating the parents and the well wishers to come forward themselves to help develop the village school.
Central Provincial Minister Pramitha Bandara Thennakoon, Provincial Council Member L.D. Nimalasiri, Galewela Pradeshiya Sabha Chairman Toshan Nimalasiri and President of the Board of Trustees of Jumma Mosque – Galewela S.M. Zameer also graced the occasion.
