By Ashanthi Ekanayake –

Asanthi Ekanayake

Harini Amarasuriya was one of the professors teaching a course on the Philosophy of Education I was following in the 2022/2023 academic year. She taught the course with Professor Harshana Rambukwella. Those hours we spent with her and Professor Rambukwella opened our eyes to the many injustices which prevail our systems as well as those aspects which worked well for us. They never taught us preaching from the pulpit as it were, they encouraged us to examine questions of equality and equity while reading and examining theories put forward by Pierre Bourdieu and Paulo Freire among others while examining our language and educational policies and teaching practices during discussions where we debated with each other and agreed to disagree. I distinctly remember one occasion when Professor Amarasuriya was a few minutes late to class. She was delayed at parliament that day. I think she wore a yellow sari that day. I remember watching her in parliament speaking with some emotion against some injustice and less than half an hour later she was teaching us, effortlessly, that anger and emotion she had kept in check while she spoke at the parliament was still palpably emanating from her as she began the lecture. Well prepared as always leading us through notions of cultural and linguistic capital making us give examples from our own experiences both in schools and in the tertiary level institutions of education, she set an example for us. She made us aware of how certain injustices manifest themselves in seemingly innocuous systemic issues causing immense harm to our children and the country as a whole.

I am sure my fellow students as do I can assure anyone wondering that she never spoke unnecessarily of sex, sexuality nor the need to incorporate LGBTQIA+ rights or sex education in our sessions. Even when a student wanted to bring in a discussion on gender issues, she shut that discussion down quickly highlighting the fact that though it would be an enticing enough topic it was not on the agenda for that day. She never spoke of sexuality nor the need for sex education in class. She was one of those rare professors who encouraged discussion and down-to-earth conversations about privilege and entitlement and the many issues which riddle the Sri Lankan education system. She contrasted the privileges enjoyed by some while others lacked the basic needs and her passion was contagious.

There should be no question that her knowledge and expertise is in an area which will necessarily contribute to the betterment of the system of education in Sri Lanka. I have seen folks giving media briefings to the contrary. Well, The Philosophy of Education is in fact one of her areas of expertise. I wonder how many of our school and university teachers have actually read the now easily available Sinhala and I hope Tamil translations of The Pedagogy of the Oppressed and from what I know the yet to be translated Pedagogy of Hope freely available online just like gay pornography as many appear to clamor.

Let us now look at those who are clamoring that she should resign and their arguments. The opposition is led by a man whose father notoriously said that chairs would need to be cleaned every month if the country had a woman prime minister, unless my memory is playing tricks. The accusations that the opposition, trade unions and the clergy are throwing at her are ad hominem or mulierem as it were as they attack the person and not an argument. If you have not been pilloried and slandered you are missing the full scope of the feminine experience in Sri Lanka. If it is felt that you are too outspoken by the patriarchies and patriarchal institutions, including the clergy, you will be dragged through the mud and challenged. What do a person’s sexual proclivities have to do with anything. Is it not a distasteful subject? Have we not had finer examples of leaders who did not ascribe to the accepted sexual norms who have held high positions in the political sphere and caused scandal? Watching the antics in the parliament one can only feel cheated and insulted. Throwing abuse and insults at fellow female parliamentarians has been the accepted norm. We would expect better from those who watch and laugh, notably the lady members of the opposition. Is this what your constituents expected of you? When some of you were insulted, she stood by you and you now choose to watch and laugh openly. Shame!

Which is precisely why we should want to empower our young children. They should know when to say no to unwanted advances. They should know when to question. They should learn what might be used against a person. They should be privy to what makes some special and others not. Let us take for an example those who do well in the Arts subjects such as English Literature at the advanced levels. Almost always they come from the upper middle class with access to cultural and linguistic capital that most of us have no access to, such as a father who read Shakespeare or a mother who listened to Ella Fitzgerald. Those who know the correct use of the definite article and the pronunciation of the word meringue already have an advantage over 99% of the population. This disparity is an issue that must be remedied. I find the inclusion of racial and gender stereotypes as troublesome as the inclusion, if accidental, of a web site with smut. Some school children from certain schools are aware that Nigeria is not the poor country we imagine it to be and that the depiction found in many of our textbooks is a racial stereotype and that the Japanese mother who can only work two days a week is a gender stereotype. These aspects should have been carefully examined when the syllabi and texts were whetted. Has anyone asked the children about what they want to read in English? They are the subalterns in this matter and everyone is shouting over their heads. Not all the stakeholders have been consulted. What is their reality? What will empower them? What will help them talk to children, of their own age in other countries? For as long as I can remember our textbooks have dealt with English folk, the Japanese and Nigerians. Why are we so disingenuous? I have been part of the Flat Stanley project in Sri Lanka for some American children. Is it not something we ourselves can adopt? Those who are actually manning the project to overhaul the system need to think of these aspects. The minister should also make sure that capable people who are in the know are put in charge of these activities at least in the future. To overhaul an entire system within a year or two is an impossible task, this should have been more paced and more thoughtful.

Sexuality and sexual politics have played an integral part in education since its inception as a separate system. Since the time of Socrates aspects such as pederasty, fortunately for our school children criminalized as of present, are known to have existed. Simone du Beauvoir had her teaching license revoked because of just such an accusation. Yet the current President of France’s love story which began when he was but fifteen years old and his drama teacher, and his present wife was thirty-nine is sensationalized. Norms and standards change and patriarchies wield much power. Our children deserve to know of how to keep themselves safe and those who are to assist them should be better equipped and we should support them. Then pedophilia and abuse will be prevented through and because of our pedagogical practices.

Another group refusing to stand by Harini are her trade unionist comrades. They are feeling churlish ad cheated that she has not stood by her assurance of 6% GDP and due to what they see as interference in the administration. I distinctly remember one such comrade saying that their role was to open the dialogue and that they did not have all the answers regarding the 6%. Well, they should know shouldn’t they? And they should also show how the allocation might be made by being proactive? It is common knowledge that misallocation and misuse of funds is an issue riddling the system as is abuse of power.