Caritas Sri Lanka – SEDEC conducted a motivational programme for the staff of the Aquinas college of Higher Studies last week, on 5th January 2018 at the SEDEC Auditorium, in Colombo. A group of 74 lecturers took part in a half a day session which saw fruitful discussion and interactions.

The team of well experienced senior staff, comprised of Mr. Kanagaratnam Theivendirarajah, Mr. Freddie Jayawardana and Mr. Sajith Silva from the SEDEC resource pool conducted the programme.The workshop comprised three sessions.

The first one conducted by Mr. Sajith Silva dealt with the aspects pertaining to the roles and responsibilities of an educationist especially in the context of a strong and nurturing student-teacher engagement.  He referred to modern technologies such as neuro-marketing techniques  and various research conducted that helped lecturers and educators to  identify  about available tools that help build a strong learning environment in the classroom, while focusing on the individual career development of the staff. His presentation titled, ‘Amazing Teachers’ helped the seasoned staff to refresh their minds of the previously learnt methods and tools that help teachers to perform and fully engage with students in their work. He also dealt with body language, presentation skills, passionate nature of a teacher, innovation and creativity that help the staff to perform better in their classrooms.

The second session, conducted by Mr. Freddie Jayawardana, titled ‘What is Time’ dealt with the meaning of time and how time is associated with our day-to-day living. He exemplified how one’s 24 hours could be shared into different activities during a day. He said that in our life we sleep for 8 hours; work for 8 hours (2/3 of the time). Then he questioned as to what happens in the next 8 hours (1/3 of the time).He said, if we assume that one lives for 60 years, he/she would have slept for 20 years of his/her life and have worked 20 years for his/her own survival – you worked, you ate, drank and slept. ‘What have you done using the remaining time, have you at least be thankful for what you have been blessed with?’ He asked the audience to remind them of the duties and obligations they have as educators.

The third session covered the stories of inspirational personalities who have evolved from challenging environments and currently working with the grass root level societies voicing for the rights of the people. Mr. K.Theivanrarajaha, a seasoned expert in the Disaster Risk Management with 35 years of experiences shared his personal experiences and demonstrated the nature of adaptability and perseverance that some humans have mastered while transforming their tragedies to inspirational models in the society.

The workshop was conducted under the guidance and leadership of Rev. Fr. Mahendra Gunatilleke, National Director of Caritas Sri Lanka- SEDEC.