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Squash racket: Education Ministry official interferes in school disciplinary matter
In an unprecedented move in the 176-year history of a premier national school, an official of the Education Ministry has written to the principal asking that a student dropped from the team for indiscipline during a squash game be put back in the team for a forthcoming inter-school tournament.
The official, Acting Education Director (National Schools) M. Kamani Perera sent a formal letter to the principal on behalf of a player, who is the son of former deputy principal of the middle school of the College. She herself has been transferred to another school on disciplinary grounds and is attempting to make a comeback through an appeal to an administrative tribunal which refused to here the objections by old boys and parents of the College.
The Acting Education Director has stated that there has been no clear reasons given for the removal of the student from the college squash team and asked the principal to put him back in the team.
Subsequently, the Education Director (National Schools) G.N. de Silva made a similar request to the principal in a similar letter with similar wording.
Parent’s, teachers and old boys of the college say the Education Department has not interfered into the school’s team selection process ever in the past.
Meanwhile, the Public Service Commission (PSC) has asked the Attorney General’s directive on the appeal made to the Administrative Appeals Tribunal by the former deputy principal of the middle school to gain re-instatement at the same school following her transfer on disciplinary grounds by the same Education Department to a school in Gampaha, then to the Ministry of Education and thereafter to another college in Colombo.
A spokesman for the Attorney General’s Department confirmed that the PSC had sent her file for a legal opinion on the matter which was receiving the attention of Attorney General Palitha Fernando himself.
One of the issues raised was whether the tribunal acted arbitrarily by not entertaining the petitions by the old boys through an approved charity that helps administer the well known college and parents of the students of the school, which included several ladies. The tribunal had stated that the old boys of the school had no role to play in the administration of the college and that they had proved they were speaking on behalf of the college.
In their petition the old boys and parents had stated that the former deputy principal was responsible for creating disharmony and disquiet within the management of the school, which was against the school’s interests and in particular of the 8,400 strong student population. It was also claimed that she had produced false educational qualifications.
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