Is Royal College Principal Athula Wijewardene Demanding a Rs 5.5 Million Ransom?

 

The message that's being circulated via WhatsApp said to be originated by Ransom Athula

Royal College, Colombo, is widely regarded as Sri Lanka’s premier national school. However, what is emerging from within this historic institution today is not stories of academic excellence, but subtle revelations regarding political games and financial crises. This latest episode unfolding under the administration of current Principal Athula Wijewardene has thrown the entire school system into turmoil.

📌 Closing a Classroom and Setting a Rs 5.5 Million Ransom?

According to information forwarded to Isurupaya and the Ministry of Education, an Advanced Level (A/L) classroom was temporarily taken over due to urgent repairs required at the school's Main Office, with the estimated cost of the renovation standing at Rs 5.5 million.

The most serious question arising here is: Why is there an attempt to push the responsibility of raising this Rs 5.5 million onto the parents of a single specific class or language medium? How can an unexpected expenditure that even the School Development Society (SDS) finds difficult to bear be forced onto the shoulders of parents from just one class?

• Is this a reflection of extreme administrative incompetence?

• Or is there a darker underlying agenda at play?

📌 Administrative Incompetence or a Hidden Agenda?

While the school administration claims that the classroom was taken over solely due to repairs at the Main Office, the questions being raised by parents are far more complex:

1. Administrative Incompetence: Has the Principal’s management failed to such an extent that necessary funds for renovating a school’s Main Office cannot even be secured through the School Development Society (SDS) or government allocations?

2. Subtle Coercion: By seizing a classroom belonging to students, reassigning them elsewhere, and creating roundabout pressure on parents to raise the funds, hasn’t a situation akin to "extorting a ransom" been created?

3. Allegations of Discrimination: When classrooms in other mediums exist, why was a specific classroom targeted in this manner, and what is the real political or personal agenda behind placing this heavy burden exclusively on those parents?

📌 Education Under the Tamarind Tree and the End of Governance

A school exists to protect the educational rights of its students—not to leave children helpless in order to fulfill a Principal's personal requirements or building renovation projects.

If there are no funds and no space available, were these children admitted just to be taught under the shade of a tamarind tree? It is high time authorities open their eyes to the severe reputational damage inflicted on Royal College over the past year and a half.

Is this truly the outcome of an inability to manage the school, or is it a calculated maneuver to squeeze millions of rupees out of parents? The Ministry of Education must intervene immediately to expose the ultimate truth to the country.