SRI LANKA: Teachers deprive a student from receiving education after getting forcible statement

ASIAN HUMAN RIGHTS COMMISSION - URGENT APPEALS PROGRAMME

Urgent Appeal Case: AHRC-UAC-021-2008
ISSUES: Inhuman & degrading treatment, Right to education,

Dear friends,

The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has received information regarding the forcible deprivation of the education of a 13-year-old student by teachers in Sri Lanka on 19 November 2007. The teachers allegedly forced her to sign a statement that she had been raped and is accordingly pregnant, which a medical report later proved to not be true. The principal issued a leaving certificate and did not allow her to come to the school.

CASE DETAILS:

Nirosha Virajini, a 13-year-old girl and student of the Ratnapura/Elapath Maha Vidyalaya was seen talking with a boy under a tree in the forest adjoining her school. On 15 November 2007, during the second period in school, Nirosha Virajini was called by a teacher called Patricia to the staff room. When she went to the room, there were many teachers including Patricia, and others called Kumudu, Ganga, Indika, Premalatha and Somalatha.

These teachers crowded around and proceeded to accuse Nirosha of having a love affair with a boy in Patricia’s class, subjecting her to great discomfort. They asked whether she had been raped by the said boy and whether she was pregnant, then forced her to proclaim that both were the case. Disturbed and upset, she said that she did not understand what the teachers were asking.

Then teachers Patricia and Ganga said that they would consult master Dayaratna, another teacher in the school, and left the staff room. When they returned they continued their questioning, and pressured Nirosha Virajini to write a letter stating that she had an affair with a boy in the school. They also made her write that she was raped by the said boy, and is now pregnant.

At that point, the Home Science teacher took her to the Home Science class room where the principle, her class teacher Kamudu, a prelate who was a teacher in the school and masters Dayaratna and Nandana questioned again. The boy in question, Udesh Manjula, was also there.

Teachers Nayana and Nandana took it upon themselves to again ask a series of unwarranted questions for about 15 minutes, causing considerable embarrassment. However Nirosha says she did not understand most of the questions. Then Master Dayaratna told her to bring her mother to school the following day. Udesh was told to bring his father.

On November 16, Nirosha Virajini’s mother was taken to the Home Science class room, to a meeting with the same teachers from the previous day’s events. Master Dayaratna then told Nirosha’s mother that her daughter was having a love affair with a boy in the school, that she was raped by the boy in the forest and that she should be taken to a doctor. The mother was also instructed to lodge a complaint with the Women and Children’s Bureau of the Ratnapura Police, while not harming the name of the school. Master Dayaratna and the principal both then stated that Nirosha was no longer welcome at the school and should find another.

The teachers got Nirosha Virajini’s mother to sign a statement written in a book, without letting her read its contents, or know what was written. Mother and daughter returned home at about 10:30am.

On November 17, Nirosha’s mother accordingly took her daughter to make a complaint at the Women and Children’s Bureau of the Ratnapura Police station. She told them that the school had asked them to make the complaint. A statement was recorded from both Nirosha and her mother. They were asked to sign the statements without having read them or having them explained.

On November 19, Nirosha Virajini went to school to sit for the year end exam, but was scolded and chased away by the principal. She did not try to return to the school.

Subsequently on November 24, according to procedure, Nirosha was accompanied by her mother and a female police officer of the Ratnapura police to a Ratnapura General Hospital where she was subject to a medical examination. The doctor who examined Nirosha Virajini declared that she had not been raped and that she was not pregnant.

On 9 January 2008, Nirosha Virajini’s parents then went to her school to request that their daughter be allowed to continue her schooling. The principal however expressly denied this and issued a leaving certificate against her and her parents’ will.

Nirosha’s father Bathalawattalge Gamini then sent a written complaint, dated 11 January 2008 to the Chairperson of the Human Rights Commission of Sri Lanka, the Inspector General of Police, the Provincial Director of Education Ratnapura, the Director of Education Sabaragamuwa and the Officer-in-Charge of the Child and Woman’s Bureau.

Nirosha Virajini has neither been allowed to go to back to school nor introduced to another potential school.

SUGGESTED ACTION:
Please write to the relevant authorities listed below and request them to take immediate and appropriate action to restore the right to education of this 13-year-old girl. Also urge them to take disciplinary action against the unethical practices of the principal and teachers of the Ratnapura/Elapath Maha Vidyalaya.

The AHRC writes a separate letter to the UN Special Rapporteur on the right to education and on the question of torture calling for their intervention into this case.

To support this case, please click here: SEND APPEAL LETTER

SAMPLE LETTER

Dear __________,

SRI LANKA: Teachers deprive a student from receiving education after getting forcible statement

Name of victim: Bathalawattalage Nirosha Virajini, 13 years old, residing at Dellabada South, Karangoda
Name of alleged perpetrators: the principal and teachers of Ratnapura/Elapath Maha Vidyalaya, Ratnapura district, Sabaragamuwa
Date of incident: 15 November 2007
Place of incident: at the school, Ratnapura/Elapath Maha Vidyalaya

I am writing to voice my deep concern regarding the victimization and deprivation of education of a 13-year-old student by the principal and teachers of the Ratnapura/Elapath Maha Vidyalaya in the Ratnapura district of Sri Lanka.

According to the information received, on 15 November 2007 Nirosha Virajini was forced by the principal and teachers to sign a statement that she had been raped and was made pregnant by a senior student; a fact which she has consistently denied. Since they suspected her of having affair with the senior student, the principal and a teacher informed her mother that they can not keep her in the same school.

However, the medical tests done on Nirosha Virajini found that she has not been raped, and was not pregnant.

I have been informed that when she went to the school to take the year-end exam on November 19, she was scolded and chased away by the school principal. Thereafter the student has not been allowed to go to school.

I have been further informed that on 9 January 2008, when her parents went to speak to the principal regarding the continuation of her education, the principal issued a leaving certificate against her and her parents’ will and reiterated that she should find another school.

In light of the above, I urge that immediate action be taken to restore her right to education. I also urge you to take disciplinary action against those teachers who have treated her in an inhuman and degrading way, and deprived her the chance to study, or take her year end exams.

Yours sincerely,

—————-

PLEASE SEND YOUR LETTERS TO:

1. Chief Minister 
Sabaragamuwa Province 
Chief Minsters Office
Ratnapura
SRI LANKA
Fax: +94 45 2222793

2. Provincial Education Director
Dept. of Education Sabaragamuwa Province
Ratnapura
SRI LANKA
Tel: +94 45 2222403
Fax: +94 45 2236514

3. Chairperson
National Child Protection Authority 
330, Thalawathgoda Road 
Madiwella 
SRI LANKA
Tel: +94 11 2 778912/13/14 
Fax: +94 11 2 778975
E-mail: ncpa@childprotection.gov.lk

4. Minister for Education 
Ministry of Education
“Isurupaya”
Battaramulla, Colombo
SRI LANKA
Tel: + 94 11 2 785 617
Fax: + 94 11 2 784 846

5. Secretary 
Human Rights Commission of Sri Lanka 
No. 36, Kynsey Road 
Colombo 8 
SRI LANKA 
Tel: +94 11 2 694 925 / 673 806 
Fax: +94 11 2 694 924 / 696 470 
E-mail: sechrc@sltnet.lk

6. Mr. Victor Perera
Inspector General of Police 
New Secretariat 
Colombo 1
SRI LANKA 
Fax: +94 11 2 440440/327877
E-mail: police@police.lk

7. Bo Viktor Nylun
Head of Child Protection
UNICEF Sri Lanka
P.O. Box 143, Colombo
SRI LANKA
Tel: +94 11 2 555 270 (6 lines)
Fax: +94 11 2 551 333
E-mail: colombo@unicef.org

Thank you.

Urgent Appeals Programme 
Asian Human Rights Commission (ua@ahrchk.org 

Document Type : Urgent Appeal Case
Document ID : AHRC-UAC-021-2008
Countries : India,
Issues : Inhuman & degrading treatment, Right to education,