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Interview with Saliya Pieris, Chairman of CfPS Law School
When one hears parents discussing the topic of higher education for their children, one needs to appreciate the fact that it is always against the backdrop of decades of saving hard-earned money expressly for that purpose. Educationists who are committed to imparting such education to all of Sri Lanka’s young sons and daughters appreciate this most of all. The future of a young man or woman, someone’s son or daughter, is at stake, and needs to be approached with optimum care and empathy with the concerns and aspirations of both parents as well as students. Moving around in the halls of higher learning at the Center for Professional Studies and the CfPS Law School so very conveniently located in the heart of the city, equidistant from any approach in the swathe of Colombo’s fast developing suburban expanses on north, south, east and west, talking to its Chairman and board members including its deputy Chairman Mr.Ajith Perera who is not only a veteran lawyer but is also an elected legislator in Parliament, one is struck by the inordinately deep personal concern they have, with no exception, for the meaningful success of their wards. At this institution the obsession is for an elitist finesse to be imparted to every student fortunate enough to pass through its portals. The following is a synopsis of answers to questions I asked the Chairman of the CfPS Law School, Mr.Saliya Peiris, who is also an extremely prominent attorney-at-law and a notable legal personality in this country, on the foundational objectives of the CfPS and other matters relating to the exceedingly high level of education imparted by its panel of distinctively high caliber lecturers who are not mere teachers but are senior practitioners at the bar and therefore impart to their wards fact and experience based interpretations of the law in their lecture rooms. Q: Mr.Pieris, It seems to be a pretty well established truism in educational circles that the CfPS stands out as a beacon in a sea of confusion in today’s dog fight in the overall sphere of higher education. What has contributed to this reputation that the CfPS enjoys?
To begin with, we have for the past 21 years been recognised as the leader in legal education in this country and have unarguably provided the ideal environment for law students to go past their Degrees with much more than a mere legal qualification. I was in legal practice as I even now am. The language issue had progressively lent itself to a gradual deterioration in the quality of law students issuing out of our halls of higher learning. In court rooms across the country I would encounter young lawyers quite incapable of prosecuting or defending a brief. They had the basic knowledge in place and yet there was a missing ingredient which we identified as the overall ambience in which legal education was being imparted. We had to do something to ensure that our young women and men were accorded the wherewithal to pass out as an elitist attorney, equipped with the knowledge and finesse needed to launch into a legal career with confidence and flair in any court, anywhere in the world. Q: Are you saying that the CfPS sets a global benchmark in legal education instead of just merely adding some cosmetic touches to make a legal education simply look better?
A. Not only am I saying that , yes, that’s exactly what we pioneered but I would go further and claim that we have accomplished that objective if one is to judge by the professional and personal finesse one sees in the scores of graduates who have passed through our portals. Ours is an ethic that not only moulds lawyers of distinct ability but men and women who are transformed from the mundane into men and women of also much social finesse.