Well known educationist and international civil servant no more

Well known educationist and international civil servant Dr. Uvais Ahmed passed away early this month. His funeral took place at the Dehiwala burial ground on October 6.

Dr. Ahmed, educated at St. Mathew’s College, Colombo, started his professional career as a teacher immediately after school.

Subsequently, he obtained his BA (English, Economics, and Philosophy), receiving second class Honours at the Sri Jayewardenepura University, post-graduate diploma in Applied Linguistics from the University of Edinburgh, winning a British Government Scholarship and his PhD from Columbia Pacific

University, majoring in Education. He also obtained a postgraduate diploma in School Administration from the Moray House College of Education UK, and a diploma in Educational Media from the AsiaPacific Institute for Broadcasting Development in Malaysia.

He worked as a teacher, textbook writer, education officer, lecturer in English at the Teachers’ Training College, and was Prinicipal of Zahira College, Gampola and Colombo, Director of Education in charge of curriculum development and teacher education and Director, Sri Lanka

College of Journalism.

In 1978, Dr. Ahmed, who was appointed by UNESCO as an expert in Educational Media and Education Technology, functioned as consultant to the International Institute for Educational Planning (IIEP) in Paris.

In 1983, he joined the UN/FAO as their Consultant in Development Communication and Non-formal Education in Nigeria, Zambia, Uganda, Ethiopia, Pakistan, Thailand and the kingdom of Tonga.

He has also served the Commonwealth Secretariat, London, as their Consultant in Teacher Education and was a Visiting Fellow at the Australian National University, Canberra. Latheef Farook