Meet the Founders

Being successful in conventional education (both going beyond their bachelors’ to pursue further education – Sifaan in Engineering, HR, Education Policy and Adult Learning and Dileepa in Science, Marketing and Business Administration) they initially subscribed to the belief that the education system was working fine and students just needed to be smart in their choices and work hard at it.

But their work (Sifaan in designing and delivering corporate training / development interventions, Dileepa on mismatches between tertiary education and labour market needs for the Ministry of Labour / Ceylon Chamber of Commerce and later with UK assessments, examinations and qualifications) as well as their eclectic interests (including but not limited to social justice, transformative justice & reconciliation, anthropology, philosophy and sustainability) had led them to look beneath conventional education’s facade of success even before they became parents.

The birth of their son in 2015, made their academic (pun intended) interest in education a personal one, and modulated their parenting approach (to read about their experiences, challenges and insights, please see “Parenting with Metta” on Facebook / Instagram). This catalysed their exploration of alternative education and convinced them that conventional schooling was fundamentally flawed - and that most reform agendas were, at best, as effective as rearranging the deck chairs on the titanic, and in some cases were even making things worse.

The decision to establish Kinder Republic was a culmination of the frustration with the lack of any alternative options in Sri Lanka and encouragement by successes in other countries as well as the number of parents they met with similar concerns about conventional schooling.

Sifaan and Dileepa are active in defending Child Rights, with both being members of the Child Protection Alliance (and Dileepa being the Co-Convenor for 2024) campaigning for ending corporal punishment of Children, and Founding Members of the Rights-Centric Education Network.