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by Talia Jayasekera

While children in the North-East are finally getting their chance at a sound education, some youngsters in the rural areas are being robbed of this opportunity. Not by a dark-clothed bandit but instead by bigger and better equipped schools in other districts. It could not be said that the Education Ministry is entirely to blame. Parents tend to be more keen to send their children to the larger government schools. Rural schools in such areas tend to be modest at best, prompting parents to send their children off to school farther away.

This leaves only a meagre amount of children in the village school, usually about 30 to 60 in all. Thus steering the Ministry to shut it down and effectively cutting off the only access to education.

"There are so many reasons these schools close down but the media portrays it as the fault of the Education Ministry", says Secretary to the Education Ministry Mr. Nanayakkara. "They conveniently forget to take into consideration these reasons and as a result a wrong image is projected and blame falls to the Ministry".

"But there is not much we can do when such factors are beyond our control. We follow a rationalisation formula that states that if there are two primary schools within two miles of each other, where one contains only about 10 - 15 children and the other is bigger and better equipped, then it is only appropriate that we close the smaller school and concentrate our efforts on the larger one.

The children from the smaller school can then enjoy the benefits offered by the improved institution", he explained.

"We do not want to waste resources by unnecessarily keeping two schools open in such close proximity. So there is a council known as the 'Structure Committee' that makes the final decision when closing down under-utilised school premises and re-routing resources".

"Also the demographic factor plays a big part in this dilemma. Each year the Grade One applicants fall by 35,000 entries. This is because of the decrease in the Sri Lankan population", said Nanayakkara. "So it cannot be said that the Ministry is closing down schools at will. This is an incorrect way of putting across the situation".

"We also shut down schools when there is a massive physical barrier impeding the children from attending the school. This could be location wise, that is when children have to cross a river to get to the school or the path leading to the school is not in the best of conditions. This gives grounds to close the school and send the children elsewhere". "But mostly the problems lies in the personal choice of the child's parents. Any parent wants to send their children to a top school with better educational opportunities. They prefer to send their child by bus, even 15-20 kms away to the bigger school. This leaves us with an excess in school buildings", he said.

No doubt a school should function with a substantial number of students or it would be a wasted effort. No one can change the personal choices and opinions of a parent regrading the welfare of their children. However, the public does hope that the Education Ministry uses the excess resources responsibly to upgrade school facilities and the system of teaching. Children throughout the country deserve the chance at changing their destinies.

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