
Schools in Vanni under siege
Conditions in Iluppakadavai school in MannarIluppakadavai school is functioning in temporary sheds. This is school was formed by combining the students of Adampan and Karunkandal schools who were displaced from Manthai West AGA division due to SLA shelling over the last few months.
The sheds in which they are leaning have no side walls and no surrounding fence. Due to the heavy rain the students are forced stop learning because the rain comes into the class from the sides. Because of no fence stray dogs and livestock sleep in their class room at night and when the students come to class in the morning they are forced to spend time cleaning their classrooms. Conditions at Vellankulam Tamil Vidhyalayam in Mannar
Principal of the Vellankulam Tamil Vidhyalayam in Mannar said that his school is functioning under great stress due to severe lack of resourcers. There are 366 permanent students enrolloed in this school in Grades 1 to 9. A further 336 displaced students are attending this school. The school lack adequate teacher numbers. There are only 12 permanent teachers working in this school. The rest of the teaching load is undertaken by volunteer teachers. There are no desks and chairs for these students who are forced to learn by sitting on the floor. No text books for the year even at the end of term one for Vannni students Some of the zonal education directors in Vanni have charged that the allocated text books for the year for the schools in their have not been received. The end of term one examinations are about to be held in April and the students are severely disadvantaged in their studies without the text books. Since many of the curriculum for the year are very new, last years text books are of no use. Particularly affected are the text books for Science, Mathematics, English, Tamil and Religion for the GCE OL class. Also Year 7 text books for Science and Mathematics have not been received. Students and parents are distraught about the lack of text books in a crucial year like the GCE OL year. These students must sit the island wide GCO OL examinations at the end of the year and lack of text books; that too with a new curriculum will severely disadvantage them. The text books are waiting in Vavuniya district and are being blocked by the Sri Lanka military.
17 March 2008
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