Some days it’s school, other days begging

On the roll are 384, 50 Sinhala and the rest Ahikuntaka children. The daily attendance at Kudagama Vidyalaya, however, leaves much to be desired and it is a struggle for Principal G. Wickremasiri to keep the children in school. For when the parents leave for a month, the children cannot manage on their own. After a few days, the money is over and the children take to begging, singing or collecting money with “appeals” about sick people laminated for easy use on the buses, The Sunday Times understands.

Even the few children who pass the OLs and are sent through the Principal’s efforts to schools in Anuradhapura and Tambuttegama drop out soon after. But Lakshan Pradeep Kumara is the pride of the school. He is the first student to pass the Grade 5 scholarship examination in the history of the school, scoring 144 marks. There has been no tuition or extra books, only his determination and the dedication of his young teacher D.P.A. Wijesiri who coached him after school for no fee.

I love cricket, smiles Lakshan from the gypsy community, but his yearning is to be a doctor. Walking around barefoot because his one and only pair of shoes is wet, Lakshan is looking forward to attending the town school next year. As the bell rings to end last Wednesday’s school session, Lakshan will go back home to his lunch – rice and wattakka. Did he have breakfast? No, he says. Will he have dinner? This 10-year-old doesn’t know.