Dr. Tara De Mel

Dr Tara de Mel is co-chair, Education Forum Sri Lanka, Member of the Worldwide Commission to Educate All Kids (Post pandemic) & Member, UNESCO Advisory Board of the Global Education Monitoring Report. She has served the Government of Sri Lanka for nearly two decades in public policy, as Secretary to the Minister of Education, Advisor to the President of Sri Lanka on Education, Vice Chairperson, National Education Commission, and has coordinated the work of Presidential Task Forces on Education. She served on the Board of the Commonwealth of Learning for two terms. Throughout her career, Dr de Mel has been engaged in promoting quality and equity in education, in child protection and preventing child abuse in schools, and preventing ragging and bullying in universities. She is a member of the Global Consultative Group- Mindfulness Initiative UK, and is active in incorporating mindfulness into schools, developing programs on mindfulness with values, ethics and social emotional learning, targeting educators. She founded Mindful Educators Sri Lanka and co-authored the Manual for Mindful Educators in 2021. She is a medical doctor and has held teaching and research positions in academia, with a research-based MD from the University of Colombo, and MPhil from the University of London, UK. In 2019 she was awarded National Honors : Sri Lanka Sikkhamani.