Do you just grin and bear while your child suffers?

By Kumudini Hettiarachchi

What recourse do parents have to justice, if they believe that their schoolgoing child is being harassed by teachers and other students? It seems as if they have none. To whom do they appeal, if repeated pleas to the so-called "relevant" authorities have failed? The answer seems to be the same.

What should they do? Maybe the option thousands of parents are compelled to follow would be to grin and bears. Otherwise hell breaks loose and if the parents are bold enough to take up an issue whatever the consequences, the ultimate choice maybe to remove the child from school and seek another. But in today's context, when admission to a "good" school is so difficult, many would keep the peace with the school authorities and suffer in silence.

If the parents do complain to the school authorities, of a grievance real or imagined, what is the plight of their son or daughter? Should it be harassment and more harassment at the hands of teachers, who are actually supposed to be the child's guardians and mentors and be non-partisan, even when punishing the child for a misdeed? They are "expected" to rise above petty problems and even if parents complain against them, not vent their anger on the innocent child. For can children be held responsible for their parents' acts?

This, of course, is the ideal situation. The Utopia where justice and fairplay are the order of the day. But as P.A. Jayasena and his family learnt, the reality is far, far off.

Amidst the allegations of Mr. Jayasena and the counter-allegations of the education authorities, two teenage girls have been suffering since July this year. It's the end of November, but the trauma of the girls in a "good" school in Gampaha is far from over. Have any of the adults sat back from the controversy to consider what effect all this will have on the children? What psychological scars they will carry throughout their lives? Isn't there any official in the whole system governing education who can step in, act impartially and bring about a settlement, so that the children are not made to suffer? Or is it just another case to be ignored?

The issue began with an "accident" (see box) in school, which the parents claim the teachers took no notice of. According to Mr. Jayasena their 13-year-old got scalded in the school premises. No first aid was given and the child was left to her own devices until she screamed in pain and insisted that the teachers telephone her mother, whose workplace was very close to the school. The teachers allegedly were getting ready to leave for home and delayed making the call. Finally about 45 minutes passed and they said they couldn't contact her. The child continued to cry out in pain. Finally the teachers went to the mother's office and brought her to school. The mother rushed the child to the Co-operative Hospital in Gampaha town.

"The burns were so bad, that the child couldn't walk. She had to be carried to the toilet. She also had to be taken for changes of the dressing regularly. On their second visit to the doctor, a teacher confronted my wife and child at the hospital and an argument ensued. Then began the harassment of our 15-year-old daughter who is attending the same school and is a Junior Prefect and Girl Guide," Mr. Jayasena said.

He said, "The school authorities called my wife's workplace and complained about her to her senior. My elder girl was hauled up before some teachers and threatened. Messages were sent to us to remove our children from school. Then I wrote to the Principal requesting her to hold an inquiry. To add weight to the letter, I sent copies to the Western Provincial Director of Education and the Minister of Education."

But, alleges the father, the harassment didn't stop, it only got worse. The child who got burnt could go back to school only about two weeks later. Not all, but some teachers continued to insult the children and get them to give statements without the parents being present. The Girl Guides' Association was also arbitrarily dissolved.

In desperation, Mr. Jayasena then wrote to President Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaratunga with copies to any official he could think of including the Human Rights Commission (HRC). The President had forwarded the letter to the Director for necessary action. Meanwhile, on August 27, the HRC had called both parties for an inquiry and the Zonal Director had said the matter was referred to the Gampaha Divisional Director and he was unaware of what had happened after that. The HRC had instructed the parents to meet the Zonal Director on September 1 to discuss the issue. When Mr. Jayasena went to the Zonal Director's office on September 1, which was also dubbed a "public day" when people could meet him, the Zonal Director had not been in office.

While the matter is bounced like a ball covered in red tape from one bureaucrat to another, the Jayasena household is in turmoil, with the two daughters refusing to go to school. The harassment also continues in school. One such instance had been Teachers' Day as recently as last month. All the children had been asked to bring Rs. 10 each to buy small gifts for the teachers, but his two daughters' money had been returned in front of all the other students. Another instance had been "Dharmapala Day" on October 22, when all the Prefects were expected to decorate the school. Mr. Jayasena's elder daughter had been chased off causing much pain of mind to her.

The school authorities, on the other hand, claim the "burns" were just a "podi bibila" (small blister). There is no problem, everything has been sorted out and the children are coming to school. The parents are just trying to create problems. There is no harassment. An inquiry was held and everything has been settled, they said.

When contacted, the Deputy Director of the Provincial Department of Education, A.C.B. Dodanwela studied the file and said the matter had been sorted out. During the preliminary inquiry conducted by the Zonal Director on September 10, 13 and 16, the statements of the mother, the children and the teachers had been taken and an agreement reached. The clauses were:

* All extra-curricular activities at the school will be streamlined.

* Extra-curricular activities will be available to all students, without any discrimination.

* The Zonal Director will supervise the extra-curricular activities continuously.

The Deputy Director was insistent that the children's mother had agreed to the conditions and the matter was over. When asked about the harassment, he said he didn't think there was any such thing.

Had the department written to the parents officially that the inquiry had been concluded? The Deputy Director was not sure, but said most probably they had.

When the parents were asked about the inquiry, Mr. Jayasena said they didn't know of it. He explained that his children had been called separately and pressured to give statements, but as far as he knew they had not signed any document.

"My wife is not aware of any conditions and has not agreed to anything," he said. Even 10 days ago, other students had threatened his elder daughter, most probably at the instigation of some of the teachers, he said. "There are a few other teachers who are very understanding and try to protect my daughters."

Whatever the stage of the inquiry, it is essential that the children should be allowed to attend school without hindrance and mental torture. The educational authorities should also set up an independent body to which parents could appeal in case they have a grievance. The body should be impartial, without a taint of bias towards the school authorities or the parents, unlike the "Kekille" judgments.

For a country which is shouting from the rooftops about this right and that right, such a bias-free inquiry body is the right of all schoolchildren.

Much more than a 'podi bibilak'

The afternoon of June 21, at the Gampaha Yashodara Devi Balika Vidyalaya, was just like any other day. School sessions were over. But, being a 1 AB school (the best category) extra-curricular activities were underway. The Girl Guides were in full swing. In groups of two, supervised by a teacher, they were preparing tea. Water was being boiled in empty milk tins on a fire built up in a corner of the schoolyard.

Suddenly there was a problem. A 13-year-old, while attempting to pour the boiling water from a tin into a container to prepare the tea, had accidentally poured it onto her leg.

According to the parents, the teachers took no notice. The child rushed to a nearby tap, with only two other girls to help her, tore off the sock and held her foot under the tap, all the while screaming in agony. In tears, she asked to be taken to a doctor, but the teachers were getting ready to leave for the day. Then she requested that her mother, whose workplace was close by be telephoned. The teachers took the number to the office, but came back about half and hour later saying the lines were busy.

When she pleaded that they call her, one teacher had hopped a trishaw and brought her. When the mother came, the child was still holding her foot under the tap and she had seen scalded pieces of sock and flesh being washed away. She then rushed the child to the private Co-operative Hospital in the town, as government doctors were on strike at that time, the child's father said.

The school authorities said the child had no business to be there, with the guides, because she was not in that group. She had been chased away by the teacher in charge, but had kept coming.

There was only a "podi bibilak" (small blister), they said.

A blazing heart within a thin frame

By Carl Muller

The Indian Cultural Centre in Colombo will mark the visit of Mahatma Gandhi to Sri Lanka this month. The Mahatma came here in November 1927 on a mission "undertaken on behalf of the poor millions of India." He travelled to many parts of the island, promoting the sale of Khadi and collecting funds for the poor of India. The Indian Cultural Centre, in its Bulletin of October, gave excerpts of some of the Mahatma's speeches at Nalanda Vidyalaya on November 15 ("You are being taught the path that the Great Buddha gave to the world......"); when in Jaffna on November 27 ("If orthodox Hinduism consists in dining or not dining with this man or that man, and touching this man and not that man, or in quarrelling with Mussalman or Christians, then I am certainly not an orthodox Hindu leader"); and at Zahira College on November, 22 (" As I was studying Christianity, Hinduism and other great faiths of the world, I saw that there was a fundamental unity moving amidst the endless variety that we see in all religions, namely Truth and Innocence.....")

Mahatma Gandhi .......father of India's independence and advocate of non-violent resistance. It was this frail man who, in his last speech in 1948, said; "I wonder if we can be free of the fever of power politics, or the bid for political power that affects the political world West and East."

The story of Gandhi is too well known, and it would suffice to say that he achieved the fullest development of the heart that any man ever did. He said once that there is a limit to the development of the intellect, but no limit to that of the heart - and it was this strong heart, blazing within that thin, near-wasted frame, that sought to free India and the world from the vestiges of violence, racism and poverty.

All India knew him as the "Great Soul" - the Mahatma, and it took time to fully appreciate the magnitude of his teaching. And there was the famous march. The world began to realise and recognise that the march was truly the embodiment of the cries of the people. The great Salt March has now become almost mythical in proportion, that 400km march to the Arabian Sea, a line of human bodies that stretched for 3 km.

It is rather disheartening to see how history constantly rewrites Gandhi as a man of passive resistance. In truth, this is a misconception. There was nothing really passive about his motivations, but a fierce wish to create for the people a just environment. Jinnah, it is said, was never comfortable with Gandhi. Once, it was reported, Gandhi told him during the last years of British rule; "You have mesmerised the Muslims," to which Jinnah retorted: "And you have hypnotised the Hindus!"

And yet, as we move into the new century, carrying on our backs the powder kegs of the old, we must know deep down that the conflicts and confrontations, the craze for power will go on. Will we ever be free of violence, racism and poverty? Perhaps we should re-mould our millennial plans in Gandhian cast and understand that only the concept of brotherly love will triumph and give to this blessed isle the unity it seeks.

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