All set or settling for the O/Levels

In the midst of all the resettlement activity taking place in the North, some 6,000 displaced students are preparing to take the first qualifying General Certificate of Examinations, Ordinary Level (GCE, O/L).
About 4,000 of the 6,250 O/Level students are still in camps for internally displaced persons (IDPs), while the rest have been resettled in Vavuniya, Ampara, Jaffna, Batticaloa and Trincomalee.

“Many of these students have had their studies disrupted by all the resettlement and other activity going on in the camps,” said Vavuniya (South) Zonal Education Director, Mrs. V. R. Oswald. “Students in camps can make their O/Level applications on November 20. We had to to suspend exam applications earlier because resettlement was taking place almost daily,” she said.

Mrs. Oswald said a total of 65 schools were originally set up in the camps, and these schools were being gradually closed down as families moved out to be resettled. Because a large number of these students do not have National Identity Cards, arrangements have been made to provide them with identification documents.

Eight schools in Vavuniya South are holding special classes for students from IDP camps. Many of these students have had their education disrupted by the war in the North and East, and many missed classes while settling down to life in the camps.

“We are holding separate evening classes for the students from the camps because most of them have fallen behind in their studies,” Mrs. Oswald said. “We cannot teach both sets of students simultaneously because of the difference in standard. Some of the teachers from the camps are helping out.”

There are also GCE Advanced Level students among the O/L students. These are the students taking the O/L Mathematics paper; for various reasons, they were unable to take the Maths paper last year.

IDP students from Vavuniya North have not been given a date so far for making their O/Level applications.

According to Malathi Muhunthan, Deputy Zonal Director of Education, Vavuniya North, the IDP students in the area were still not fully settled, and it was difficult to make exam arrangements for them. “They enrol in one school, and for one reason or another they change schools. Things are still very unsettled,” she said.

In Jaffna, some 1,300 students from IDP camps have returned to the peninsula, and the number is growing daily, according to an official working with the Provincial Director of Education, Jaffna. “Most of the students of O/Level age coming back to Jaffna have no identity documents. We have told them to get at least one photo certified by both the principal of their school and the zonal education director,” the spokesman said.

Many of the displaced children who have been placed in host family homes do not have enough textbooks and exercise books, according to P. Krishnakumar, advisor on education for the Save the Children charity. “Through Sarvodaya we have forwarded 100,000 Tamil educational books to be distributed among IDP children,” he said. “These are not textbooks but general knowledge books for children between three and 18 years.”

Save the Children is helping the Vavuniya Zonal Department by buying textbooks and classroom materials and equipment, Mr. Krishnakumar said. Most of the resettled students were unable to return to their original schools because these schools were badly damaged during the war, he added.

The Sunday Times understands that many IDP camps are facing a teacher shortage as camp-based volunteer teachers were moving out and returning to their respective districts.

Students from IDP camps have had to overcome big obstacles to get ready for their O/Levels.

The Northern Provincial Education Development Unit of the Ministry of Education is the main government body looking after the interests of displaced students.

Northern Province Education Development Unit director Ranjith Jayasundare said this was a difficult time for the IDP students in camps because of the resettlement and other activity going on in the camps. The good news is that students moving out of the camps will have permanent schools to go to very soon. “Fifty-nine schools will be opened shortly in Mannar, Killinochchi, Mullaitivu and Vavuniya,” he said.

According to Mr. Jayasundare, there are 30,712 students in the IDP camps at present. Those taking the O/Level will be given priority and provided with accelerated learning programmes. Identity documents are also a priority. “We are discussing the National Identity Card issue, and we are collecting nformation,” he said.