Tamil medium education affected in North East-CTTU

[TamilNet, Thursday, 31 August 2006, 06:58 GMT]
About two hundred thousand Tamil medium students in the North East have been deprived of their education due to the prevailing tense situation resulted in mass displacement of teachers and students and curfew imposed in the Jaffna peninsula, Ceylon Tamil Teachers' Union (CTTU) said in a press release Thursday.

The press statement of the twenty thousand member strong CTTU further says that about 78 schools have been closed in Muttur division and mostly entire Tamil population have been displaced. Access to LTTE controlled villages in Muttur and Eachchilampathu has been closed preventing teachers from outstations to report in schools there. Tamil medium teachers and students are subjected to harassment, arrest, abduction and killing.

Those teachers who have gone to Jaffna and Wanni for official and personal purposes are unable to return to their areas. Several schools in areas not affected by current war have been converted as refugee camps. Hence third academic period of most of the schools located in war zone has not commenced and the future of Tamil medium education in Jaffna district, Pallai education zone, Muthur east, Vaharai, Verugal, Mankerni, Vammivedduwan, Omanthai and several zones is still in bleak. This has posed a danger of depriving the basic right of education and equality in education to Tamil medium students in the North East, stressed the CTTU in its press release.