In a recent discussion with Hill Country Tamil teachers in Nuwara Eliya, a trade unionist said the claim that all have equal access to education in Sri Lanka, does not work for the Hill Country, because they, as a community, were denied free education for three decades after independence. Indeed, while we may be proud of the legacy of over eight decades of free education, since the Kannangara reforms in 1944, the dark strand in our history is the black hole of plantations without state schools until the 1980s.
In this column, I address the predicament of education in the Hill Country, drawing on the reflections of some of my former students based in Hatton, who are now junior
researchers belonging to the Young Researchers Network (YRN). Through them, I have had the opportunity to connect with a younger generation of Hill Country Tamil teachers who have articulated the current challenges of education in schools. In their forums and seminars, we met a number of pioneer educationists from the community who enlightened us about the struggles after independence that were pivotal in changing the character of education in the Hill Country.
Over the last year, YRN has also conducted field studies among the isolated Hill Country Tamil communities in the Southern Province.
As I articulate below, education in the Hill Country cannot be understood without considering the history of disenfranchisement and landlessness that have excluded this
community. Citizenship, employment and land The original sin of our country was the disenfranchisement of the Hill Country Tamils in the year after independence. The move to forcefully return them to India, despite many of them having lived here for generations, led to further devastation of the community with families being torn apart. To avoid being forcefully displaced to India, violence in the region with periodic pogroms and a famine with lack of work in the plantations, many of them sought refuge in other parts of the country, but only to become bonded labour in the rural hinterlands. This harrowing history led to the entire Hill Country Tamil community, including their political leadership– regardless of their varying politics and commitment to the struggles of the community– converging in demanding citizenship rights.
That long struggle was finally resolved in the early 2000s in ensuring the citizenship rights of all Hill Country Tamils living in Sri Lanka.
However, citizenship alone did not ensure a better future for this community who had endured two centuries of economic and social exclusion. Sadly, while the Hill Country Tamil community, toiling on the plantations, had been the primary wealth producer of the country, it was denied the benefits of economic growth and wealth accumulated in Sri Lanka.
Neither does this community have access to decent jobs and work, nor do they own land. The “total system” of the plantations – where the plantation companies have full control over a captive population as characterised by some scholars – has trapped these working people in despicable line room houses, with exploitative low wages and without avenues for other employment. A further crisis for the workers and their families emerged when estate employment began to decline particularly from the 1990s, leading them to seek jobs in the informal and service sectors in Colombo and other towns, and also leave for migrant work overseas.
Underlying this economic predicament is the lack of land rights for the majority of the community. Even though there is much fallow lands in the plantations, access to land has been systematically denied to the Hill Country Tamils. Even the land grants by the state for other marginalised communities in the rural countryside have not reached the Hill Country Tamils. This denial of land has been a conscious decision of successive governments, as landownership would break the captive character of their social and economic life necessary to sustain the plantation system.
While many of the people living in estates have been involved in vegetable cultivation and dairy farming for decades, the lack of formal land title means they cannot get any support from the agricultural department, they do not qualify for subsidised credit from the government and cannot access credit from banks. Indeed, next to the resolution of their citizenship and the advances in education discussed below, right to land has become the central demand of the community. If there is the political will, land for the Hill Country Tamil community is one of the most profound socio-economic changes the NPP Government could bring about.
Education and the current crisis
Amidst this harrowing history of exclusion and exploitation, the glimmer of hope in the Hill Country has been a new generation of educated youth. There are a couple generations of teachers who have emerged and are rapidly advancing the educational attainment of children in the Hill Country. Indeed, it is the presence of local teachers that can ensure holistic engagement with the students in their lived environment. A teacher living in an estate is easily accessible and can provide guidance and support on selecting A/L subjects and applying to universities. However, lack of facilities, such as school buildings, toilets, teachers quarters, as well as problems of access, especially the lack of transport in many of the remote areas, are characteristic of major infrastructure shortcomings. Furthermore, the lack of science teachers and the unwillingness for teachers to work in remote areas undermine children’s meaningful education.
There is thus the need for further expansion of the mid-day school meal programme and other supports, including hostel facilities for secondary school children, following, for example, science subjects.
In this context, the recent economic crisis and rising poverty levels have led to an unprecedented increase in school dropouts and irregular attendance. This is also the case for Hill Country students in the Southern Province where they have to travel longer distances to Tamil medium schools that are few and far between. The socio-economic situation in the Southern Province, with even less formal employment in the plantations and irregular contract work, including in out-grower cultivation, leads to deterioration of children’s education over-determined by the economic and social situation of these dispersed communities.
On the broader challenges facing the Hill Country community, the struggle for land rights and sustainable livelihoods have to be linked to educational advancement. It is access to land that can strengthen food security, alternative income streams and a decent home environment for children’s education. This has been a challenge for subaltern communities around the world.
In fact, MST, the Landless Workers Movement in Brazil, has an extensive educational programme, which also aims to strengthen and support land struggles. In many
such countries land struggles succeeded, not because of top down land reform by the state, but due to the struggles of the people, including by squatting and actively capturing land. The strength of MST was to establish schools in those settlements and get families involved in both education and livelihoods. The challenge in the Hill Country now is to connect the free education system to the struggle for land rights.
The large army of Hill Country Tamil teachers can transform their communities, but there is also the risk of bureaucratisation through our state education system. Given the social and economic status of teachers, there is the possibility of teachers becoming a class unto themselves, where they end up living in urban areas and becoming distant from the working people of their communities.
This is where the participation of teachers in the struggles for land and housing and remaining part of the body politic of the community, becomes crucial. The challenge before younger generations of teachers and researchers in the Hill Country is one of breaking the barriers of formal education and the walls of schools to open them up to the struggles for land, homes and livelihoods. The activism and signs of such progressive changes in education transforming the Hill Country can be an inspiration for us around the country to reshape free education in the country as a whole.
Ahilan Kadirgamar is a political economist and Senior Lecturer, University of Jaffna (Kuppi is a politics and pedagogy happening on the margins of the lecture hall that parodies, subverts, and simultaneously reaffirms social hierarchies)
( The Island)