My friends Tom and Terry Lamond gave $100 to buy school clothing and supplies for Veenitha's neighbour's orphaned children. We bought three pairs of shoes, 2 dresses, a skirt and blouse and a school bag. The kids and their grandmother were so happy, they were apparently weeping. Thank you so much Tom and Terry. You have helped three girls stay in school that would otherwise have very little chance. Maybe they will go on to change not only their lives but the country as well.
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| Here are the foot tracings for the girls so we could get the right size. |
Here is the text of my expose on École Internationale. Needless to say, the school has not be identified by name, nor have I, but if you are thinking an know about the school, you will be able to identify it from the hints in the title and throughout the article.
"
COME TO SCHOOL
INTERNATIONAL, THE FACILE CHOICE IN SRI LANKA'S HIGHLANDS!
Are you a parent who would like to send
your child to an expensive private school that teaches in English
medium? We offer a wide variety of benefits for the undiscerning
parent:
- an undisclosed fee schedule
- very little discipline in the class room
- teachers with unknown qualifications
- two campuses in the heart of the Central Province
- poorly equipped classrooms
- dirty and stinking bathrooms
- dusty and poorly kept campuses
There is no need for you to participate
in the education of your children as we do not have a parent/teacher
association nor do we hold parent/teacher conferences. Just as well,
as we have no place with the privacy necessary to have any discussion
about your child or your concerns anyway.
If you have a special needs child that
you want to dump into a classroom, we will be happy to take him/her
without question so long as you are prepared to pay the fee. We
regret that we cannot provide any meaningful education or even help
for your special needs child, but we are sure you won't mind.
We have no food program nor do we have
a cafeteria as we do not care if your child is hungry or not when
s/he comes to school. We do offer a canteen service which serves a
variety of totally nutrition less deep fried foods and sugar packed
drinks and snacks.
In addition to our undisclosed fees,
you will also be paying for uniforms, but they are rather shoddy, so
they will not cost a lot. Plus the uniform only applies to shirts,
skirts, slacks, shoes and socks. You can make use of any old sweater
your child has at home if one is required. At least we don't do what
some public schools do which is specify even the style and pattern
for school shoes. We even know of at least one public school where
you can buy these very specific shoes from the principal. He must be
making a lot of money off this, so we will look into it. All ideas
for fleecing you are welcome.
You will also have to fork over for
text books. This may be quite expensive as there is some text book
swapping but it is totally unorganized. We know you will understand
that organizing a book exchange at the end of every school year is
just too much to expect from us.
Are you a student who wants to go to a
school that offers very little supervision or indeed education?
Then this is the place for you. You can join a gang and carry on
gang fights without fear of police interference. We are proud to say
that one such fight even landed a student in the hospital for 2
weeks. Needless to say, there were no consequences for the
perpetrator.
You can do drugs in the bathrooms. You
can attend class or not. The only thing we are likely to worry about
is whether girls and boys are kissing or holding hands, but there are
plenty of places where you can do that as well. Best of all, we keep
no records of your performance so your behaviour and indeed your
marks will not follow you for the rest of your life. Of course, you
may have difficulty getting into any post-secondary institution, but
we are sure you don't care.
On that score, we teach the London
syllabus so you have a very remote chance of getting into a foreign
school. However, we do not teach the local syllabus which would give
you a chance to let into a local school. So at the end your time
with us, you will likely have failed to get into a foreign school
because our level of education is so bad and you will not get into a
local school because we do not offer the required syllabus. We truly
wish we had thought up this ridiculous system, but we can't take the
credit. That goes to the Ministry of Education.
If you are a power hungry egotistical
type that wants recognition for doing nothing at all, we have a great
prefect programme. You get to wear the badge, hang around looking
important, do nothing and best of all, you can remain prefect or even
head boy or girl long after you have left the school.
We ask that you don't bring your cell
phones or iPods to school, but we don't really check so you can do
what you want.
For that small number of overachievers
who do want to do well, you should consider another school. Even if
you did manage to get somewhere on your own, we offer nothing in the
way of counselling for college or university entry.
Our scheduling is a bit haphazard but
again we know you won't mind. We offer the government mandated
religion classes. In fact, we are so zealous about this that we
waste 5 periods a week on it. No matter that this leaves no room for
things like French, Spanish, German, Hindi or any other global
language that may be useful to you later on. We do offer classes in
Sinhala and Tamil so at least you may come away with a working
knowledge of your mother tongue.
If you are one of those small, wimpy or
female students, you can be sure we will give you the best experience
ever in bullying and harassment. It will be good for you. Toughen
you up for the hard cruel world that you will face after school
anyway.
We have streamed you into two areas,
commerce and science. God only knows why, but there you go. You may
also want to note that we don't think that knowledge of computers is
important in today's business world, so we do not offer this subject
to commerce students.
Many of our teachers are well past any
reasonable retirement age but you will like that as they will likely
not be able to see or hear what you are getting up to. Plus, many
teachers have very little command of the English language in which
they are supposed to be teaching, so there is no need to pay
attention in class. If a teacher leaves, we take our sweet time
replacing them so you get to do whatever you want for months on end.
We have no public address system, so if
you do get into any trouble, the grapevine will let you know well
ahead of the game so you can skedaddle.
We are the perfect school for the
intellectually and physically lazy. We have a virtually non-existent
sports programme, so you never have to get sweaty. We could offer
you cricket, net ball, basket ball, swimming, tennis, badminton and a
few other things, but we are not really bothered. For those who do
want to get all dirty and sweaty, we do have a few lame teams:
cricket and net ball for sure. You can also play badminton in the
gym either between or during other classes, but you have to get that
set up on your own.
There are no extra-curricular
activities such as music, art, drama, literature, etc. , so you don't
have to worry about staying after school.
Are you seeking employment as a
teacher? We offer very low salaries, but you will be compensated in
other ways. You can come and go as you please. No need to fill in a
leave form or to inform anyone of your absence. Just don't show up
for work or leave whenever you want to. We don't mind. We ask that
you sign in and out, but no-one really refers to these books, or even
if they do, nothing is done about it. Of course, if you get on our
wrong side for whatever reason, you may be fired without any due
process, but that is a small price to pay.
We don't really care about your
qualifications. Even if you have some and provide us with some
proof, we don't keep any employee files, so they will be useless.
Furthermore, we offer no professional development as we don't want to
pay for or keep track of it. You will find the atmosphere to be most
comfortable as none of your colleagues excel so you will not be in
competition with anyone. We have found that no teacher with an ounce
of self-respect wants to work for us, so you will be safe from being
shown up for the rest of your career.
We may give you a copy of the syllabus,
but we don't care if you follow it or not. Don't want to fill out
the class record book. No problem. No-one refers to it anyway.
There is no need to mix with your
fellow teachers. Staff rooms are tiny, spread all over the campus
and are segregated. No-one will supervise your attendance let alone
your classroom performance. No classroom preparation is required.
Just read from the textbook, or better yet, let the students read
quietly from the text while you take a little nap. You never have to
see or meet with a parent.
The principal is a very nice person.
His only concern is hiding in his classroom which is fine as we don't
provide him with an office in any event. He is hardly available to
provide assistance or even to administer the school, but the flip
side of that is that he will not be getting in your hair. We do have
a director, but she is dotty so you can either ignore her or use her
as a tool for undermining those of your colleagues you don't like.
For those of you who are looking for an
investment opportunity and feel that private for profit education is
your ticket, we are worth considering. All our financials are looked
after by a firm in Colombo. They are obsessed with your privacy so
that no-one will ever see any financial records. We are sure that
the books are well kept as the same firm that does our accounting
also does our auditing so that nothing gets by them. But the good
news is that we recently hired someone who has an intimate knowledge
of how to assist in scamming millions from foolish investors, so your
money will be safe in our off shore bank accounts.
We feel that this is an especially good
investment for those who are looking for a capital loss vehicle. We
have lost about 500 students in the last 3 years, so that if you need
any financial offsets for your vast income, we can provide them.
Once you have made your initial
investment, it is unlikely that we will be asking for any more.
Despite our large profit margin, we do not bother with any capital
reinvestment. You will be happy to hear that we make use of all our
furniture and equipment until after it falls apart and in some cases
even after that. We squeeze the last value out of every rupee.
Our track record speaks for itself. We
have survived in the private education marketplace for a long time.
In fact, we are one of the oldest private schools in the country. We
have a glorious history that we have been proud to systematically
destroy over the last 5 years.
This is a satirical piece on what a
private school or any school, for that matter, should not be. If
you have a child or are a child who attends a school that has even
one of these problems, start doing something about it. No-one other
than you is ultimately responsible for your or your child's
education. Get involved in your parent teacher associations and you
student councils. If you don't have them, then start lobbying for
them.
It is the basic right of every child to
attend school and get a decent education. In an underdeveloped
country like Sri Lanka, such rights are difficult to insure.
Access to universal public education
can be restricted by regulation such as mandated but overpriced
uniforms. Some schools really do mandate the exact style of shoes
that must be worn. Having closed white, black or brown shoes is not
enough. They must be of a very particular style. If you don't have
the necessary shoes, you are denied admittance to that school which
may the be only one in your area. No school supplies are provided.
There are very few text books provided. All these things conspire to
keep children out of schools making the idea of universal public
education a myth.
Teachers are very poorly paid. The
very people who hold the future of the country in their hands are so
grossly underpaid that they would be better off cleaning toilets for
a living.
As illustrated above the notion that
private schools can fill the gap is a fairy tale or more aptly, a
nightmare. Very few people can afford such schools and even if they
can the level of education they provide is questionable.
Furthermore, the policy of Sinhala only
has left two generations at a severe disadvantage. The government
has started to reverse the tide but there have only been 2
generations of students since the reversal. The first generation of
these received no real benefit from language training as there were
very few teachers available to teach in English medium. The second
generation faired a bit better and improvements continue to be made.
Economic advancement cannot be achieved
without education. Failure to redress shortcomings in the education
system will leave Sri Lanka as a third world nation for generations
to come. Citizens need to start engaging with their schools. It is
the most direct and important link in the democratic chain and
ultimately in the economic chain as well."
The other big news is that my car has finally sold. We actually have money in hand, so hopefully nothing more can go wrong. It has only taken just over a year which is speedy in Sri Lanka time.
I think I have acquired a cold so I have been swallowing the Ayurvedic mixture called paspangu laced with ginger, cinnamon, cayenne pepper, lime and honey. The latter is a concoction recommended by my friend B-J. It seems to be working, so thanks B-J.
Visa renewal is still in progress. Let's hope for the best. Same goes for finding a small estate to work. Something should crop up soon. Ha! Ha!
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