Harassment and abuse in the English medium stream

(October 14, Colombo, Sri Lanka Guardian) My daughter had the misfortune of belonging to the first batch of the English stream, which commenced in the year 2003 in Grade 7. She attends the most prestigious Buddhist government girls' school in the island situated in Colombo, in which she was a student from Grade 1.

Since the commencement of English medium classes, the students were subjected to a lot of harassment by some teachers. The division of classes into English and Sinhala medium created a division amongst the teachers into English speaking and non-English speaking teachers.

The general opinion that prevailed was that the English medium children were of bad behaviour; they lacked religious values and knowledge of Sinhala. Hence they were constantly abused as "Children from England."

One teacher in particular, harassed my daughter from the start and it continued right along. This teacher's knowledge of English is very poor but has forced her way into teaching in the English medium, thus availing herself the opportunity of harassing innocent children who are fluent in English.

She has the habit of distorting well-written speeches in English that the children are supposed to read out at public functions, with her poor knowledge of English. Such is her insanity. Once she had for no reason cornered my daughter and said "Oyata witharak nemei, mage duwatath ingreesiyen katha karanna puluwan" (Not only you, my daughter also speaks English). Who cares or who is bothered?

Here is a person who clearly suffers from an inferiority complex and harbours immense jealousy and malice towards innocent children. Such a person is a hindrance to the character moulding of our future generation.

What surprises me as an old girl of this school, which has produced many a great personality in our country, is the fact that the school is tolerant of her irrational behaviour and foul mouth. Why? In spite of this, there are a handful of great teachers who always protect and stand by the students with motherly love and timely advice. May the noble triple gem bless and protect teachers of this rare calibre.

At the university we were ragged and tormented because we spoke English. The same form of thuggery or terrorism has invaded our schools as well. This is a very sad situation. It is high time the authorities concerned take serious notice of this situation and take remedial action immediately, as English is of paramount importance to us Sri Lankans to be globally competitive.
- A Disgusted Mother - Sri Lanka Guardian