Musings:

Teaching Sinhala in the North and East

by Padma Edirisinghe

The caption could have been the title of a professional course in teacher training in the 1960 s when the writer headed a female teacher training institute (TT) sited on the picturesque banks of the Mahaweli running its long way in the upcountry to disgorge its waters at Gokkanna, modern Trincomalee. But strangely, the dames who had been teaching Sinhala in the north and east for years minus any professional training entered this domain minus any such 'ennobled' titles as teachers of Sinhala in the north and east.

Perhaps the administrators in Malay Street at that time were too broadminded to send them for training with a specified title tagged on to them. Perhaps they concluded that such a title is redundant for, after all, they would be following the same general training course meant for other trainees. Just for a passing observation, a local legend had it that this TT institute plus her twin Polgolla on the other side of the river served as army camps when during World War 11, Lord Mountbatten, lorded over Asia military-wise and had a headquarter office in Kandy.

Cradles

It is rather amusing to note that many TTs in the island had as their cradles, these deserted and dishevelled army camps.

You may consider the above facts as a muddle of facts perhaps irrelevant to the topic, but the topic itself encases such matter. For some clarification, when Sinhala was introduced as a subject in the school curriculum of north and east schools, the dearth of teachers for such a task was acutely noted.

The hiatus came to be filled with a novel breed or at least that is what I garnered from the autobiographies of the batch of students mentioned above. Did these students volunteer to write their life stories?

No. The present writer motivated them as head of the UTT at that time. Their mannerisms were different, their language skills different. Though a good many of them were ethnically Sinhala, they spoke halting Sinhala and among themselves very often conversed in Tamil too.

They were also socially outgoing and friendly and accommodating. Were they a different species? Come from another planet? No.

As their life stories revealed further, they were children (occasionally even grandchildren) of one time adventurers from the south who had invaded the areas of trade and commerce in the NE including the small islands dotting the coastline.

Years and years of living in these areas had acclimatised them to the new culture, a mix of Tamil and Sinhala and no prejudices. And they were ever ready to fit into new situations as their parents and grand parents had done.

Fascination

Their Sinhala soaked with the Tamil accent had a fascination of its own. Born and bred in these new terrain, when opportunities came their way they grabbed it. That is how when the posts were gazetted they ended up as teachers of Sinhala in Tamil schools in North and east. As all these happened in the 1960 decade they may all be retired by now.

But while at the job they just qualified to make a success of it since they had gone through some worthy experiences that nourished their personality.

Some of these teachers were Moslem by birth, some Hindu when fathers married women from the area they settled in. Mixed marriages engendered a broad vision among them. All were bilingual.

Needless to elaborate these teachers mirrored the interesting complexity of our society which bigger countries as the USA and India enjoy due to their large size. I just enjoyed reading their life stories so vibrantly recounting experiences in new lands. Once trained and even catharsised their strange stories, they, I knew would go back to do a mighty job.

Damsels

Who said multi-nationalism is bad for a country? There was a colleague of mine now dead. Almost many of my colleagues are now dead while strangely I, now more housebound, seem to go on penning pieces on all sorts of odd topics. That deceased one used to admonish me for using the term, 'a multi-national country' supplanting the term, Sinhala Buddhist country. Either way we die as she and others did or will do.

Here and there bright lights like the damsels of the north and east spangle the enveloping darkness tainted with prejudice and hatred which can be eliminated if we set our minds on the task.

(The writer was Director, Colleges of Education, Education Ministry in the 90s.)