The Speech of The Founder, Dr. Mohan Lal Grero at The 25th Anniversary Celebrations of Lyceum International School, Nugegoda - 14TH June 2018

In school, we are taught a lesson and then given a test - isn't that so? In life, it’s the other way around - we are given a test which teaches us a lesson. During the past 25 years, we had to face so many tests. Tests of our lives. And we faced them, sometimes we failed pathetically. Sometimes, there was success. Whatever the lessons we could learn from all those tests, we learned humbly. We nurtured with those lessons, in our hearts, to face the defeat and success equally, but yet to be determined, to persevere because that we could lead to success. Earlier Mr. Nikitha told you, that one reason to found this school was that when I was trying to find a school for him, I couldn't find a decent school which I could actually enrol him to.

There were schools, I'm not actually accusing that there were no decent schools in Sri Lanka at the time. But we didn't have any ways or means or have access to those schools. As I was analysing what the problems were, I looked at some private schools but we couldn't afford them. Then, in all those private schools, religion was not taught, mother tongue was neglected. I was an educationist from the beginning. I, actually, read the Engineering Discipline in the University of Moratuwa, because my father wanted me to become an engineer. But I didn't really want that. I wanted to become a teacher. But still to satisfy him, I did that. But yet, even while I was at university, I was teaching.I had thousands of students. Sometimes, there were about 1500 students in one class, in huge halls. Education was my forte. In 1978, because I fought against the deficiency in the state education system, I was remanded and I spent two weeks in remand.

From that time onwards, I started reading about the education system in Sri Lanka, and I realised the deficiencies. So I had that urge to establish a school. Actually, initially, I didn't have ways or means, I had only this 33 perch land here, but yet, since the problem of Nikitha was still not solved to enrol him to a school, all those other factors fell in place, and, that was the auspicious time to start a new school, to found a school. So I started with two classrooms. I'm so happy that today out of the four pioneer teachers we have three pioneer teachers and our Registrar here today. Can we ask them to come on stage? First of all, the Registrar, Mrs. Manohari Abeydeera, I remember we were all waiting... for enrolments, so every day I used to ask from Mrs. Abeydeera whether there were enrolments. She worked here with us I think for more than twenty years. Mrs. Nicola Greig, Mrs. Shirani Wimalasuriya, Mrs. Marianne Amarasekera three of the pioneer teachers. Lets us give them another big round of applause.

Now I'll tell you another reason, another secret of our success, especially for the young children here. I would like to share a story. There was this inn by the road, joining two Italian cities: Venice and Verona. They were few 100 km apart, there was a road joining those two cities those days and there was this inn keeper. And a lot of travellers who were travelling from Venice to Verona and Verona to Venice used to spend their time at this inn. And there was this very wise inn keeper. One day, a traveller came by and he sat and he asked for a room to spend the night and he was chatting with the inn keeper. He told the inn keeper, ‘I am going from Verona to Venice, I am fed up with living in Verona. Those people there in Verona, they are so vicious. They're cruel, they're unkind, they do not empathise. I don't want to live anymore in Verona, I'm going to Venice, I'm going to live in Venice. By the way, do you know anything about the people in Venice? Are they good? Are they kind? Are they warm?’ Then the inn keeper promptly answered.

He told, ‘Sir, it's useless going there to Venice, because people in Venice they are also cruel, they are also unkind, they are also vicious. I don't think you will find any consolation by going there.’ So the traveller was really disappointed and he retired to his room. After few hours, another traveller arrived. He was coming from Venice to Verona, the other way around. He met the inn keeper as well and he told him, ‘I have to leave Venice. I am going to Verona, some of my relations live there, so I'm going to stay there for good.’ He asked from the inn keeper, ‘How are the people in Verona? Are they good? Are they kind?’ Then the inn keeper asked from the traveller, ‘How do you find people in Venice?’ The traveller answered, ‘They are warm.They are very nice people. Very empathetic. They are kind, very good neighbours.’ Then the inn keeper answered, ‘Sir, don't worry. You'll find the people in Verona also to be very nice, very kind, very good people.’

Can you understand the lesson behind the story? If we seek the bad side of a person… Everyone has a streak of viciousness in them, including myself. But yet, if we try to get the best out of people, you will always find that there is so much good in everybody as well. If we see only that bad side of people, you treat them badly, then they treat you badly, then you find the whole world as vicious and cruel. But the person who found others warm and kind, saw the good side of people. Automatically, such people are also treated well by others. So here at Lyceum, our family, we treat them the same way. We try to get the best out of them, we motivate them, we give the best to our students and we try to get the best out of our students. There’s another secret in our success. We are blessed in our diversified student population. All ethnic groups are present here. It’s a blessing, I really feel that it is a blessing that we are together and in that unity, we get our strength. That is the strength of Sri Lanka as well. In my opinion, all schools should be multi-ethnic, multi-religious schools.

There are some schools, for example Ananda College where I studied, 99.9% students are Buddhists. But we are in a mixed society, we have to strengthen the social fabric. So in our school, I am so happy that we have everybody, everyone together where we can work together as one family, that is another blessing. Now throughout this journey, when we were tested as I told you earlier, there were so many people including our four pioneer teachers, three pioneer teachers, there is one more teacher, we couldn’t actually contact her (Mrs. Kanthi Jayaweera) and including Mrs. Manohari Abeydeera , they all supported us, they were pillars of strength, and my wife, as you know, who is a mother to all of you. And remember, even though one factor to found this school was Nikitha, I’m proud to say that from that day onwards every child in this school was a Nikitha to me. There was no discrimination and no favours granted to him. Ask from any teacher, whether I asked any teacher to teach him to give him an extra lesson at home.

No. Everybody was the same to me. I cannot show that from my face. Sometimes you will not see that on my face, but it is in my heart. I have dedicated this school to all of you from the bottom of my heart. It is true, in this commercialised world I have to charge a fee. Without money, we can’t do anything. When the government is not paying or subsidising private schools, we have no choice. But I founded this as a non-profit organization. Nobody took any profit for the last 25 years. Go to the Accounts department, ask from the Accountant, get all those accounts, profit and loss whatever, and see whether the dividends have been distributed during the last 25 years. Not a single cent. Mrs. Grero works and I worked for a long time, today I actually do not hold any position here because it can become a conflict of interest, because I am the State Minister of Higher Education and Cultural Affairs.

But yet, we have not taken a single cent. I didn’t, or do I now take a salary today. Mrs. Grero only takes a salary. You have to know these things. Because whatever the surplus, I can’t call it a profit, that surplus is ploughed back to the development of education. There is another secret of success. We did it with passion for education and not for money. Education is not a business. Some parents, who do not know these facts, they think we are just a business. Even people in general, a lot of them, they think this is a business, but it is not, not for us. It’s a noble profession and endeavour. We are building nations here, so that is our idea. I would like to thank all the teachers, and without them we couldn’t have achieved these milestones, this 25th Anniversary Silver Jubilee, we are actually commemorating. You know what this success is, I don’t have to elaborate. Now the future is totally in your hands. Depending on your performance, dear students - there is a lot of past students here as well. I’m so proud because whenever I talk to any businessman, any corporate sector person they tell me ‘We recruited these people from Lyceum, they’re so clever.

Not only that, they are well disciplined.’ Nothing will survive without discipline remember. Here, you are not happy about discipline rules. You hate it. I think that’s the nature of children, but the nature of us, the teachers should be to tell you what is correct and what is wrong. But when you go out, people see the difference between you and others, people who were nurtured in Lyceum, they are different, so many people have told me. So that is our future. Not only that, when you consider the school, actually in a way the management is in the hands of Nikitha and you know that generation. All of you can also support him. He has already started with new technology, prepared new structures to run the school smoothly, to manage it efficiently, better than us, that is the future. He wanted after another 25 years, the four of us to come back to school together.

I think there’ll be more, isn’t it? Mr. Nikitha? Thank you very much for being here today. I don’t want to make a very lengthy speech, we are very happy and I would like to thank everybody, every student, every past pupil who has kept our school’s name with dignity. Please love your school. I know some students while they are in the school they hate the school, some even after going out they hate school, but we are not moved, we are not unhappy because we know we did our best. So it is up to you, the future is yours as I told you. So I hope Lyceum will be blessed and a glittering beam of education in Sri Lanka. Thank you very much for being here today.