President Gotabaya Rajapaksa, in his message for the World Children’s Day 2020, has highlighted the importance of bringing children up to be virtuous adults.

“As much as we give importance to nurture children’s physical and mental health, we must also ensure they are brought up to be virtuous adults.”

“Our children are the future of the nation,” the President said adding that it is the responsibility of the entire society to create an environment for them to develop their skills while enriching them with knowledge.

“Even if a country achieves high ranking in many national and international development indices, I believe that a country cannot be rated as one with a righteous society unless it possesses rich fundamental qualities such as human virtues and compassion.”

In order to build that kind of a country, the present and future generations must be equipped with technical skills and language competencies while enhancing their moral values, the President emphasized.

He further said: “My sole purpose is to build a country where citizens conquer both the physical and mental poverty. It is guaranteed that in such a country children will live in peace, happiness and contentment. I believe that you will prudently steer the childhood of your offspring in order to create a generation that will experience the benefits of such a nation. Then only we can make the theme of this year’s World Children’s Day, ‘Let’s build our nation’ a reality.”