Disenfranchisement, landlessness and education in the Hill Country

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.

- BY AHILAN KADIRGAMAR

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