Punchi Banda Aloysius Weerakoon (1 January 1900 - 22 March 1988) was a Ceylonese educator and politician. Aloysius Weerakoon was born on 1 January 1900 the son of S. Weerakoon of Nattarampota. His father died when he was ten and his family moved to Ampitiya, where he was enrolled in an English missionary school. Weerakoon excelled at mathematics and when he turned eighteen, he was invited by the priests to conduct English and mathematics classes for the younger children at the school. In 1919 he entered the Government Teachers Training College in Colombo and graduated as a teacher.