News
Suicide of humiliated students shed light on broken system
View(s):By Chrishanthi Christopher
The Human Rights Commission last week summoned Education Department officials for an inquiry into the death of a 19-year-old schoolboy who had committed suicide on the school premises.
At the inquiry, it was revealed that the Advanced Level science stream student had been pulled up for poor performance in school exams by the school administration.
The incident took place at Methodist Central College in Batticaloa. The school, it is learnt, had summoned his parents for a meeting on November 11 to appraise them of his performance at school-level exams and to inform them that he was below the expected standards to be an A/L candidate in January next year.
The unwilling student who was forced to accompany the parents, had consumed some poisonous seeds before meeting the school administration. He had vomited, collapsed and died.
A similar incident had occurred at Sivananthan MV, also in Batticaloa District, on December 5, when an 18-year-old student in the science stream had been pulled up for performing poorly in physics.
The parents had been summoned for a meeting and the student who did not want to face the humiliation, had refused to go and had hanged himself.
The first case was taken up by the Human Rights Commission on December 13 when the school principal, the zonal education director and the Batticaloa provincial education director were summoned. The inquiry concluded with a directive for further investigations.
The deaths raise issues related to pressure exerted on schools, provincial and zonal education officials by the Ministry of Education.
It is learnt that provincial schools are expected to show good results in the national exams. It is a chain of events with the provinces pushing for best results from zones and from schools.
Eventually, the school administration exerts pressure on teachers who in turn penalise students, with weak students at the receiving end.
Further, to show good results, candidates are short listed with several weak students excluded.
During the Covid-19 pandemic, school children have been subject to much stress. There were no physical classes. Poor students, who did not have smartphones or other devices, those who could not pay for data, and worse, did not have online access, were at a great disadvantage when online lessons began.
The children in rural areas and in the plantations were the most affected. Many have dropped out of school.
While there are no statistics from the Education Ministry about dropouts, the 2021 annual report of the Central Bank of Sri Lanka, shows the student population in Government schools had fallen by 33,529. In 2020, the student population stood at 4.06 million, compared with 4.03 million in 2021.
In private and special needs schools also, the numbers have diminished from 138,726 in 2020 to 137,049. Dropouts occur mostly in the rural areas and the estate sector. In the plantations, the primary grades dropout rate is 13%, while in the rural areas, it is 3%.
Of them, around 58% take up menial jobs. This despite child labour being considered illegal in the country. Another reason for an increase in dropouts is that most schools in these regions are primary schools. Children who finish Grade 5 find it difficult to enrol in secondary schools. Also, the need to travel long distances often prompts them to give up school.
Prolonged school closures because of the pandemic in 2019/20 followed by the fuel crisis that prompted school closures once again at the beginning of this year, have badly affected education. In addition, the closure of schools in April 2019 also had badly affected education.
Nevertheless, the Government had refused to compromise on the A/L syllabus insisting that the entire content be delivered within the brief time the schools were open this year.
Royal College teacher R. M. Ratnayake said there is excessive pressure on students to perform well in exams. The capacity and intelligence varies in students and it is wrong to judge students merely on a three-hour paper.
The education system needs to be reformed and children should be channelled to appropriate fields based on their ability and capabilities, he said. Students have lost years of quality learning in classrooms.
In the wake of the economic collapse, the mid-day meal, which was an incentive for poverty stricken children to attend school, was halted. It was resumed in October, but only to feed a few students.
Ceylon Teachers’ Union spokesperson Nuwara Eliya district, V. Indraselvan said out of 33,000 children listed for the meal only 11,000 receive food. The CTU general secretary Joseph Stalin said that schools are adopting various methods to show good results. They prohibit students from sitting national exams and even turn a blind eye when students copy during exams.
The Education Forum said that the only solution is an exam-free school education that judges students on ability and talent. It should be activity based. “Give freedom to teachers,’’ co-founder Sujatha Gamage said.
The CTU Batticaloa District secretary Ponnuthurai Udayarooban said disallowing students from sitting exams is not a part of the education system.
“This has created a sense of uselessness among weak students who lose their self esteem for life and end up as unproductive citizens,’’ he said.
Education reforms to be introduced in 2023 advocates doing away with exams in schools, noting that grading and ranking in performance was demotivating students, preventing them from excelling in their adult lives.
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