Parvathie Nagasunderam:

A teacher's journey that began in Kilinochchi

Face to Face by Ranga Chandrarathne

"As you know "said Parvathi Nagasundaram or Paru as everyone calls her out of love, " I have never been discriminated or isolated among any community or society in the globe. I have not even felt separated anywhere in the earth. I respect all religions. I do not see. Myself either as an Eastern or Western person, I see myself as a human being".

"I am retiring a happy person today, not because of what I have achieved, but because of what I have contributed to the field of English education", said energetic and contended academician at her retirement, after serving forty three years in the field of English.

The difference lies in how the individuals approach and tackle their problems. An earnest effort with a strong determination is all that is required to tide over the hurdles. Belief has to overcome fears. The history of the universe illustrates beyond doubt that few are figures who are fully understood , accepted and recognized in their own times; once a person struggles for brilliance in his or her profession , the rewards would themselves follow suit. Parvathi's career bore testimony to the above remark..

The mist has not palpably cleared yet, but one could see far and far across the paddyfields and the narrow gravel road that stretched as far as the eye could see. Out of the mist, a bullock cart emerged dragging along the gravel road. When it, little by little got closer, apart from the carter, a young lady could be seen sitting on it. Highly impressed by the sight, we could not help but ask about her.

"Where are you going? "

"To my school"

"What do you do? "

"I teach English "

Thus she recalled her nostalgic memories of how and where she started her teaching career in a remote school in Kilinochchi. In the field of Teacher Education in English in Sri Lanka, she is, perhaps, the best known figure among the educationists.

Born in Burma, she spent her infancy and childhood in India. After a sojourn in India,.Parvathi decided to make Sri Lanka, her motherland and to serve it.

Though both her parents were born outside Sri Lanka, she felt she had the moral right and responsibility to live as a Sri Lankan. Every person has an emotional attachment to his or her own culture, the sweet abode where his dearest and nearest are. Greater is the attachment of a citizen to the place where his or her kith and kin reside..

"Many members of my descent perused academic studies. Both my parents, particularly my father, were keen to see their children performing well academically, and in their social behaviour and future careers". In this respect, she often missed her Structural Engineer father as he served abroad for many years, but who exercised a greater influence in her life.

Though her mother always stayed with her, in her entire life, she spent only five years with her father. Her great grandfather, Arumugam Velupillai was among the three pioneers who went across to India, for the first time, to read a degree programme.

He was offered a post at the university of Madras and thereafter her father's family resided in India, for generations. While the women married Indian men, the males came to Jaffna to get their wives. Consequently, both her father and grandfather were born in India. However, her mother though a native of Jaffna, was born in Burma as her parents ran business there.

Redolent on teenage, she states that she had to lead a well-eyed-on-life until she crossed the threshold into her teaching career. She is of the view that perhaps due to the conservative nurture, she was reserved as a child, but towards her youth, desired the company of many friends. It is one of her rare traits that won over even her arch enemies.

Her parents, after marriage, lived in Rangoon and came to Sri Lanka when World War 11 broke out, and lived in Jaffna and Negombo before migrating to India. In India, her father served in the Indian Army as an Engineer.

In 1945, the Parvathi family came back to Sri Lanka and it was her fondly-remembered illustrious father who designed some of the buildings in the Peradeniya University, including the Physics and Chemistry laboratories. Her father, Devasingamani Nagasunderam Pillai, who was known as D.N Pillai, served at the Peradeniya University, together with architect Shirley de Alwis.

As a child, she witnessed the springing up of the naOwing to her father's protracted illness, Paravathi's family moved to Jaffna. Then they moved to Vaddukoddai where Jaffna College is. It is a question of identity again, if someone asks her of her home town, she is bewildered, for a while undecided, to collect her thoughts, as the members of her extended family live in Burma, India and Sri Lanka.

And she has a 'house' in Jaffna.Her mother's maternal uncle "grandfather "who headed the family, admitted her to Jaffna College in order to keep vigil on her family. Parvathi's longing for freedom ushered her to sit for the Teacher Training College entrance examination after the successful completion of the school education. Though her stream for O/L and A/L was Science, she entered Palaly Training College to be trained as a Teacher of English.

Prof. Rajiva Wijesinha, Dinali Fernando and Parvathi were pioneers in formulating the syllabi, including the present syllabus of the Academic programme. Parvathi designed many syllabi including the English language syllabus, and the English Language Teaching Methodology syllabus; and she used to visit these University colleges every month to oversee the work.

According to her students , she helped them in every possible way that even the students from rural areas who did not have amenities to follow English as a subject for Advanced Level, were privileged to offer English as a subject in their academic programme, mainly due to the foresighted designing of the syllabi by Parvathi.

When formulating syllabi, Parvathi insisted that equal status should be given to both literature and language, unlike in the conventional universities where the emphasis is on literature. She opined that the country needs today, more and more ELT qualified graduates to improve the standard of English.

It is doubtful whether the country's standard of english Education can be uplifted due to the dearth of ELT qualified academics. At present, the motherland is blessed with only ten qualified persons including Mrs.Lakshmi Kumaranatunga, Vijitha Yatawatte, Mrs.Kamala Wijeratne and Mr.Ranjith Ramanayake. The root cause of the problem is the widespread lack of commitment to the profession.

Though she did not like teaching at first, Parvathi loved the profession and considered every scholar as her student, irrespective of class, caste, and creed. Her students from very rural areas of the country, who never studied A/L English during their school career but today, lecturers of English, testify to this.

She designed the most popular external Degree syllabus in Sri Lanka for which over 1,000 candidates register annually. Most of them are teachers of English. She was of the view that the only way to uplift the standard of English in the country is to design a programme aimed at teachers of English.

She is very happy to see the improvement in these teachers over the years. She is ever thankful for the guidance and the support extended by Prof. Ashley Halpe and Prof. Rajiva Wijesinha. One unfortunate incident she had to face was the torching of the Jaffna library where knowledge, hopes and aspirations of a Nation.

Seared in the flames of withering injustice which affected her studies badly, so much so that, she could not do well at her second year examination. She was shocked as she used the library and also donated books to it. She also lost her collection of books on classical literature, culture, and history at her Jaffna residence.

She has no regrets in retrospect of her life which is dedicated to the welfare of the society of scholars. She saw the seed of enthusiasm in her students and became a life-long beacon to them, and in return she harvested contentment and universal admiration even from her arch enemies.