Education against all odds for two 15 year olds in Mankulam

In 1996 they were preschoolers living in Mankulam. Today Jinoshan and Rushanthini are learning Year-11 at Mankulam Maha Vidhyalayam. Their lives in the intervening decade are by no means typical for 15 year olds anywhere in the world.

As four year olds they displaced with their families in 1997 as the Sri Lankan military launched an attack on Mankulam. Their families moved to Mallavi and the two started their schooling at Yohapuram Maha Vidhyalayam in Mallavi. One year later in 1998 they displaced again this time from Mallavi to Akkarayan because Mallavi came within Sri Lankan military artillery shell range. They were studying Year-3. In early 1999 they displaced again to Kilinochchi after Sri Lankan military withdrew from Kilinochchi and it came under LTTE control. They attended Murippu Vigneswara Maha Vidhyalyam School while at Kilinochchi. In mid 2000 after Sri Lankan military withdrew from Mankulam, their home, they moved back to their own homes.

Each displacement, always in a hurry following military onslaughts, creates loss of property that was painstakingly acquired. The childhood experiences that went with so many displacements stay with them for ever. It colours their lives in a way that cannot be erased easily.

What is it like for Jinoshan and Rushanthini since their move back to their homes in 2000? Their school principal, Pankayatchelvan, laments the problems faced by their school. No money has been allocated to put a fence around the school premises. The school has suffered severe teacher shortage all along. Most of the text books are in short supply. Pankayatchelvan says there is also shortage of classrooms. At last NECORD agreed to build a few class rooms in 2006. Alas, the government imposed a ban on cement to Vanni and that was end of the new class rooms. The school has never had laboratory facilities. Even science is taught in this achool without laboratory facilities. There is shortage of desks and chairs for the students.

Many of the teachers who taught Jinoshan and Rushanthini traveled from Jaffna each week. With the sudden closure of the A9 route in August 2006 they are not coming anymore. They survive with even less teachers after that. When A9 route was opened teachers from Jaffna also took extra classes during the weekend. None of that now!

Jinoshan expresses his hope, "If only the A9 route is open like before at least we will have more teachers and that will go a long way to make up for the other shortcomings". In August 2006, Jinoshan’s father went to Jaffna to attend Jinoshan’s grandmother’s funeral and he got stuck there when the A9 route was suddenly closed. Jinoshan’s mother struggled for their daily food. She went to work as a daily wage labourer to keep Jinoshan and his siblings at school.

It is now well into the end of Term One of the school year but Jinoshan and Rushanthini do not have any textbooks given to them. Jinoshan’s older sister followed the GCE-OL course two years ago. So Jinoshan is luckier than most because he at least has a copy of old editions of the textbooks. Yet because the family’s abode is just mud huts termites have eaten most of the textbooks. Still these old textbooks remain a valued possession of Jinoshan.

Rushanthini’s biggest problem is the frequent Kfir flight over her school and home. She is troubled more after the Kfir attack on the Senchcholai complex in August that killed and injured many school girls. Being Mankulam, all Kfir flights from Colombo to Vanni will fly over Mankulam. She says, "We hear of deaths in our village frequently. Two weeks ago my cousin was killed in a Kfir bombing. We persevere with our studies holding on it as our only hope for our future".

One of Rushanthini’s subject for the GCE-OL is dance. There is no room space for dance classes at her school and these are always held under trees. These two children struggle on with their education despite the hurdles of multiple displacement, poverty, enforced separation of family, lack of: classroom space, shortage teachers, no textbooks, and above all the frighteneing Kfir flights over their school.

Yet, given their dedication to education they deserve nothing but the best.

16 March 2007

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