By Dr. Mrs. Mareena Thaha Reffai, Dehiwela.

The report ofƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚  Chief Medical officer, CMCƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚  ( Daily Mirror 30/10/2009) is really disturbing. According toƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚  his survey 50% of the Colombo children are not sent to primary schools at all! The causes can be many. It is time we looked into this matter very seriously to prevent a calamity. Or are we too late?ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚  Obviously if children are not sent to school they will end up doing various nefarious activities ƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ¢¢”š¬…” no wonder we have so many thugs and crooks in Colombo.

In fact I haveƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚  met many parents from such notorious areas where they simply enroll the children in some orphanages for fear of the children getting into bad habits and trouble.

It is also an undisputed fact that the number of children from Colombo getting into our national universitiesƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚  is proportionately low. One may argue that this is due to the fact they are entering the private educational institutes, but it may be worthwhile to check whether this is the fact or just an assumption.ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ 

The rackets going on about the admissions to schools is the most important fact preventing the children getting into the schools. The lack of education of the parents is another. They simply do not know the value of education.

Education being free in this country one would think that poverty will not have saying education. But not so, often young children being used to bring an extra buck to the family, either as beggars or otherwise.

We must not forget the bahubootha Grade 5 examination and the admission of the so called ƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ…-bright studentsƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ”š‚ to the prestigious schools of Colombo also has stolen some of the places of the local students.ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚  Once one child is in, specialƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚  places are given for the siblings and later when these studentsƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚  become old boys they have a say in the admissions too.

General saying is ƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ…-colombata kiri, apata kekiriƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ”š‚ but we also should make sure it does not end with ƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ…-colombata kekiriƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ”š‚