The Kotelawala Defence Academy is a unique and prestigious institution of High Education in Sri Lanka. It is the only University in Sri Lanka established for the purpose of conferring degrees on officers of the Armed Forces. It is also unique in being the only military academy that trains officers of all the three Armed Forces jointly and together, said Minister of Buddha Sasana, Public Security, Law and Order and Deputy Minister of Defence Ratnasiri Wickramanayake when he addressed as the Chief Guest at the Annual Convocation of the Kotelawala Defence Academy held at the BMICH.
The Minister said that the rationale behind this joint training is to lay an informal, yet a strong foundation for the mutual understanding and co-opertion for the joint operations which has been discovered as a critical factor by the military research in the developed world for achieving success in military operations the world over.
Over 130 who completed their courses were awarded degrees by the Chancellor Gen. J. E. D. Perera. Minister Wickramanayake handed over the special awards for the best overall performance to Wing Commander S. K. Pathirana and also to those who secured best overall performance in Academic Studies in the Engineering stream, Management and Technical Sciences stream, Arts stream and Commerce stream.
The Minister said that the K. D. A. is also different from a conventional university because in addition to the subject knowledge in spheres such as Engineering, Technical Sciences and Management it also provides students with the basic military training in a highly disciplined environment with total personality development with an emphasis in sports, battle training. It is therefore the duty of the Academy to utilise these unique features to aim at nurturing the future officers of the Armed Forces with the rare blend of physical as well as mental and intellectual prowess. This, I believe is compulsory in modern context in which the sheer bravery and physical stamina alone would not make a capable officer. Today, the country needs highly versatile, knowledgeable and intelligent military leaders. I am convinced that the KDA is producing such officers who are able to take up more complex challenges of the future.
Since its inception in early 1980 the KDA which was granted university status in 1988 has grown from strength to strength producing over thousand three hundred graduate officers including 65 female officers for the three services todate. Since 1996, the Academy has been training cadets from several SAARC countries as well. Today the KDA enjoys and prestigious membership of the Commonwealth Universities Association of UK.
Under these circumstances, we would be failing in our duty if we do not thank those pioneers who were responsible for the establishment of an academy of this nature, first for having the foresight and then for convincing the then government and getting the project implemented, said the Minister.
We must also express, on this occasion, the gratitude of our nation to the magnanimous benefactor of the academy, the Late Prime Minister General Sir John Kotelawala for generously donating his Walauwa and the property at Kandawala to establish the academy.
It is heartening to note that senior and middle level military officers also show a keen interest in pursuing high-level degrees in military management at KDA. This is a field in which a lot of research and development activities are essential to face the future challenges of security of our nation. It is learnt that the academy has also initiated an external BSc course in Management and several certificate courses in Advance Military, Technology, Information Technology, Military History Georgraphy etc. In addition to the graduation of officer cadets, the Academy is also involved in the much needed task of updating the knowledge of the middle and senior level officers of our Armed Forces.
I have no doubt that with the academic and military training received at KDA, the officers moulded there will exert a positive influence on the overall outlook of the Sri Lankan Armed Forces. It is indeed the responsibility of the senior military officers to educate themselves and also to disseminate such knowledge among those whom they command, said the Minister.
