Failing homes and failing schools

The Principal of Asoka Vidyalayaya opened with the problems his students faced. ‘The principal and pervasive difficulty that my students face is economic and emotional….’. The other two from Arethusa Vidyalayaya and Kotahena Sinhala Kanishtha Vidyalayaya, who followed, had no other but more harrowing tales to tell. They poured out a litany of woes of their students. They did not speak of political interference or a shortage of teachers or facilities but of the economic and emotional deprivations of their students, which resulted from absent parents, broken down families, crowded living quarters and, of course, poor educational performance, pushing these young ones to the same cesspit which these schools were built to draw them out from.

Often only the woman earned in the household and for her labour she was beaten up by he lousy husband. Many marriages had broken down and not infrequently, both man and wife, had taken other partners and those left in the lurch were the children, often in the care of grand mother. Some had no guardian at all. To them school was all, shelter, company and not infrequently the source of the scanty meal they had for the day. Those who had a home lived in houses on 0.75 perches of land, which did not belong to them. They were members of large families, parents, older children and young ones all sharing the lives of one another in that little private home of theirs. Academic endeavour, forsooth! Others lived in 10×10 square feet rooms with access only to public lavatories and water sources. Many children chewed ‘babul’, a cheap narcotic imported from Pakistan, causing mildly soporific lethargy. In many cases parents were illiterate and some of them did come to the Principal pleading that their children be taught to read and write, which light to them had been denied. Many other parents protested near the perimeter of the school loudly questioning the need for educating children. Many children earned their own living, at times providing money for the household. Teachers in these schools were not simply teachers, but friends, counsellors and sources of financial help. Those advocating some sort of test to admit children to Grade I, look sharp, these children have not one chance in a million to compete with children from affluent families. Those who bad-mouth school teachers, take care not to become outright liars, when they meet some of the teachers in these schools.

Asoka Vidyalayaya is a big Type 2 school [with classes ending in Grade X1] with 2,500 enrolled, Arethusa Vidyalyaya as well but with about 700 students and Kotahena Sinhala Kanishtha Vidyalayaya, a Type 3 [with classes ending in Grade VIII] small school. Many stories were told of hardship, despair, generosity and even heroism.

The Principal of Arethusa Vidyalyaya was one day returning from an errand outside using an entrance other than the main. He accosted a young student loitering on the compound. The student was not a good performer at school. The Principal inquired what he was doing in the compound while his class was in session and received a satisfactory explanation. He noticed a bulging wallet in his rear pocket and expected the worst. There were Rs.700 in it which he promptly confiscated and asked the boy to come back with his father the next morning to reclaim his property. They turned up and the Principal learnt to his great pleasure that that money, the boy had earned by stripping a motor car engine [‘engimak palu gahala’. How expressive!] the previous evening. They were his earnings and it was not rare for the family to seek his help when they were desperate. There is an opportunity cost to sending these children to school, both to themselves and their families. It was heroic that this young man and his father still wanted school. Both his teachers and the Principal took an interest in the boy and the Principal expected that he would obtain at least 5 A’s when he sits for the GCE O’ Level examination later this year. This Principal also brought to light the reluctance of parents to send their children for extra classes free of charge when most other parents spend fortunes taking their children to bogus teachers who collect huge fees until they are found out to be quacks.

Many of these children come from homes on the banks of the canal that runs to the sea through this area and are desperately poor. Several teachers have donated five hundred rupees out of their own meager pay packets each month, so that some of the poorest of their students may not starve and come to school. Who gives them any recognition? Next time before any one mealy-mouths school teachers, think of these acts of generosity; these teachers are among those worthy of worship [pujaniyanam]. Such men and women lived not only in the past.

Kotahena Sinhala Kanishtha Vidyalayaya is in a mixed neighbourhood of Sinhala and Tamil speaking families and since 1983, the population mix has so changed that there is a far larger number of Tamils than earlier. The medium of instruction in this school is Sinhala and their whole life outside is entirely in Tamil. Consequently, there are special problems in teaching these students the elementary skills of reading and writing.

These are but three schools in Colombo city and such schools are not uncommon, from what I have understood. Why are they so neglected? Where are the politicians to speak about them, quite apart form championing their cause? Where are the human rights activists, who roam the earth looking for injustices to people, when these young lives are blighted so needlessly? Where is the counselling that can save so much of their lives?