It Takes A Village to Raise A Child

Although we may not be aware, there are often those parents, teachers, young people, families, and other stakeholders that are interconnected in the community that constantly work hard to lobby for support for their children in whatever capacity or way they can. This positive enterprise and spirit prioritizes initiative and collective leadership, values that Teach First Sri Lanka holds close to its heart. This article is about a few isolated stories of teachers, principals and young people who have delved down this path.

In July 2023, David, Lily and I visited Batticaloa and we arranged a meeting with the parents of the preschool children who come to the Child Action Lanka Centre in Batticaloa. A conversation with these parents shed light on the key challenge that they struggle with when it comes to caring for their children's education. “Many of us had to give up school, during the war. Although we wish we could have gone back to school, we couldn’t. There isn’t a lot we can do to teach our children ourselves”.

This is a common issue that a lot of parents from lower socio-economic backgrounds face, but it is sad to see that these communities' inability to access education was a direct result of a war that was beyond their control. Schools not only ensure learning in these communities, but it is a safe haven to ensure that children are safe and occupied.

Another, point that parents raised is that many parents take their children out of school if they feel that there is a lack of initiative from the schools and children are not learning. But where teachers and principals do take the initiative to help children, parents too feel engaged and do what they can to support their children as they believe that education is a pathway out of poverty for their children. There needs to be a culture of hope to drive transformational change.

Addressing A Shortage of Teachers

When we look deeply into how some of the schools manage, we find that there are principals, teachers and parents working collaboratively to find alternative solutions for their problems. In the Batticaloa West Education Zone, there are up to 30 non-formal teachers who are not a part of government service that supplement the schools that face acute teacher shortages. Although there is still a shortage of teachers, this helps the schools meet the need to some extent. Some of these teachers are supported by principals, teachers and the zonal education team with personal contributions to their salary. In other cases, we find that these teachers are often paid a small wage by the school development societies of the schools. We were fortunate enough to speak to one of these young teachers.

Jisanthan is a voluntary teacher at Pavatkodichenai Vinayagar Vidyalayam. He has also taught at Unnichchai Vidyalayam. He teaches Middle School Math (from grade 6 to 11) and has been a teacher for the last 5 years and is not a government-appointed teacher. Therefore he survives on the minimum wage that is paid by the School Development Society of any one of the low-income public schools in the Batticaloa West Educational Zone. He did fairly well for his A Levels but he did not get into university and could not afford to do his studies privately. He recently enrolled in an external degree in education at the Batticaloa Open University.

He says it is not an easy job and not an easy life and as he is not a permanently employed teacher, there were times when the schools had asked him to stop teaching and he had to take up manual labour jobs to make ends meet. But he enjoys teaching children and given the chance, he would be happy to continue as a permanent teacher. Jisanthan also appreciates being a teacher as he has the opportunity to stay close to his community and teach children from his community.

Within the School Network

Teachers and Principals help in more ways than one. Teachers may sometimes come in early to cook for the children who might not have a mid-day meal. Many teachers travel for over 20 kilometres to the schools and yet stay after school to tutor their classes closer to exams. There is a lot of sacrifice and leadership potential among the teachers and principals in these schools.

We were able to collect some of these stories from Kayankudah Kannakki Vidyalayam. Ms Ahila Niroshini a past teacher from Kayankudah used to teach extra classes after school and on weekends to help them pass the grade 5 scholarship. With her support, the children started doing better at their exams and about 6 students passed the scholarship exam in the last year that she taught at the school. Since she was transferred to another school, the school has struggled to get as many passes. This year Ms Ahila Niroshini serves the Zonal Education Department as an Aditional Director for Primary Education.

The current deputy principal of Kayankudah, Mr Rajkumar, raised enough money through his network to find a good teacher to teach Math at their school during the COVID period, which resulted in an improvement in the pass rate at the school from 50 to 70%.

A final story is of the principal of Kithul Sri Krishna Maha Vidyalayam Ms Jeyarani who has consecutively achieved a 100% passrate in both 2021 and 2022. She has been successful in ensuring that the pass rate is achieved by organising camps at her school where O-level students are tutored at the school with the help of her teachers or any other teacher or resource person that she would personally vet and invite to the school. She would get involved and teach, facilitate and lead the children to ensure that they all pass their O-Level exams.

Refer to the School Profiles to learn more about Ms Jeyarani and her work: Link

A spirit of Collective Leadership

Collective leadership is a collaborative approach to leadership where multiple individuals, often from diverse backgrounds and perspectives, work together to guide and influence the school system. It emphasizes shared responsibility, mutual accountability, and the collective harnessing of talents and expertise. The focus is on leveraging the strengths of communities and stakeholders to foster innovation, create a cohesive vision, and drive positive change.

Collective leadership is at the heart of our mission to address educational inequities both with the grassroots community and with any collaborative partners that we work with. Collective leadership, in this context, means that educators, community members, and other stakeholders collaborate across borders and backgrounds to share best practices, leverage resources, and collectively drive progress towards educational equity.

Evidence shows that if structures that support and encourage additional support from teachers, principals and community stakeholders take the initiative, then people are more inclined to engage in these activities that support children and even take the lead in giving these initiatives life.

A science lesson at Child Action Lanka by a volunteer tutor. Mr. Sujee.

We see this when we hear about Teachers and principals who go out of their way to help beyond what is expected of them. Many do not. However, we firmly believe that by celebrating those who do, we take one step closer to changing the culture in these communities to safeguard and support children's rights.

Sincerely,

Jeremy De Zilwa.