New Chairman for Official Languages Commission

Prof. S. Sandarasegaram, former Dean of the Faculty of Education, University of Colombo has been appointed as Chairman of the Official Languages Commission by the President with immediate effect. The Commission comes under the purview of the Ministry of National Coexistence, Dialogue and Official Languages headed by Minister Mano Ganesan.

The commission is empowered by an Act of Parliament to monitor and supervise the implementation of the official languages provisions of the Constitution. The commission is also empowered to investigate the complaints made by the public on the violation of language rights of them by the government institutions.

Since the language problem is one of the main constraints of the national question or the ethnic problem in the country, the commission is instituted to look into the grievances of both Sinhala and Tamil- speaking people with regard to the use of their respective languages by the government institutions. Prof. Sandarsegaram had been functioning as a member of the Commission for the past two years.

He was a member of the National Education Commission, Expert Committee of the Human Rights Commission, Council of the National Institute of Education and Faculty Board of the Faculty of Education, University of Colombo

Prof. Sandarasegaram has authored 30 books in English and Tamil on various themes pertaining to education and his magnum opus was the ‘History of Indian Tamils in Sri Lanka’. He was also a consultant for the Asian Development Bank which implemented the ‘Education for Knowledge Society’ project.

Prof. Sandarasegaram hails from Badulla and an old student of Uva College, Badulla and Mahajana College Tellipalai. He is an accomplished scholar from the upcountry. He was also awarded the Vidyanithy title by the President in 2017.