(Lanka-e-News -17.Feb.2026, 11.20 PM) “Violations of minority rights for education manifest as exclusion from quality, inclusive, and culturally relevant learning, often driven by systemic discrimination, language barriers, and lack of resources. These violations include forced segregation, denial of mother-tongue instruction, and unequal access to education based on nationality or status, which disproportionately affect minority children”
When the opposition parties opposed the salary increase provided to Malaiyagam Plantation people through the budget the people aggressively opposed their action through protests and demonstration. In the similar way when the wage hike became a reality they demonstrated their joy though processions poojas ect. Wide and extensive publicity given by all media especially the main Sinhala language media helped in the majority community becoming aware of the issues of these people and their struggles which earned them the support and reasonable sympathy . There have been many protests and demonstration in the Maliyagam based on wage issues, , land and housing rights, and the oppressive actions and atrocities of the Estate companies and managements involving the administration of the estates. But in recent times we have not heard of protests and demonstration in connection with the serious educational issues in the Malaiyagam. The last protest and demonstration with regard to educational issues in the Malaiyagam was in the years of 1982 and 83s , almost 40 years ago. That was with regard to the demand of absorbing 402 volunteers teacher into the regular teacher carder which eventually succeeded. Since then there had been no major protest or demonstration relating educational issues. There had been few demonstration’s and protects in the educational institutes in the Malaiyagam in places like Sri Pada collage, but they cannot be calcified as protests and demonstrations relating to the overall education issues of the Malaiyagam as they related only to such institution. Recently, protests were held all over the country in support of and against the new educational reforms but the maliyagam remained aloof as if the issue did not concern them.
In the same time , many organizations and non-governmental organizations have held many protests and demonstrations on issues relating to wages, land, housing rights, power sharing, and decentralized administration rights ect .But those protesters did not realize that the fundamental foundation of all these rights, is the right for education. We are of the opinion that the rights for land, housing or other matters cannot stand unless the right for education which is the foundation is assured and consolidated. It is unfortunate to note that the intellectuals and the think tank of the Malaiyagam community has not given due consideration to this matter. All the successive governments did not have the political will to assure this right.
In a country where the right to education is guaranteed by the constitution, Human Rights and the convention of the Rights of the Child, the heading of article would make you wonder if there are children in this country who are denied the right to pre-school education? We boast of a literacy rate of more than 90% in our country. But many people do not know that more than 70% of children in the Malaiyagam do not have access to quality pre-school education. Moreover, even the pre-schools run by civil society organizations in the Malaiyagam are directly and indirectly interfered with by the plantation companies, plantation management and the Estate Human Development Fund Trust known as the TRUST .Opening of new preschools are prohibited. the initiators of such initiative and the Preschool teachers are harassed. In some places, like in Raddalle , Eastdale estates in Nanuoya and many in the Maskeliya pre-schools have been closed. It is surprising that many Malaiyagam intellectuals, researchers and activists are not aware that in many estates, the management forces parents to send their children to Creche’s on the estates and not to the pre-schools , treating Malaiyagam people as slaves.
Denial of preschools education to Children is a blatant violation of the fundamental rights of the citizens, parents and children in the Malaiyagam . In addition the livelihood of the hundreds of Malaiyagam preschool teachers who have qualified from the open university and hold the National Vocational Qualification (Level and 4 and 5) who have dedicated their whole life for the educational Development of the Malaiyagam children is at stake.
As a backward community, we have always emphasized that the development of the Malayagam community depends on the development of education, and that pre-school education is the basic foundation for same.
The formal education of this country is under the Central Government. Pre-school education as a devolved subject comes under the preview of the respective Provincial Councils . Even if a pre-school is located within the boundaries of the estate, the only regulatory authority over pre-schools and pre-school education is the Provincial Council. But it appears that the general laws and regulations of the country cannot be enforced within the estate. The Plantation companies and Management can interfere at will with pre-schools and pre-school education, close them down, and impose their own conditions.
Can this be allowed any longer? This is a challenge to the fundamental rights of the Malaiyagam people, who are full fledged citizens of this country. Although the matter has been brought to the government, the Ministry of Education, and the Government Ministers and Parliamentarians from the Malaiyagam in the past and present , no one has taken this violation of rights seriously. The Ministers , members of parliament and the authorities act in a manner that the estate Companies and Management have an administrative system that is above the law of the country and they are helpless and are unable to interfere. Does not this attitude of the politicians and policy makers attribute to the assumption that the Malaiyagam people living in the estates are still not considered as full fledged citizens of this Country .?
As indicated above, the Provincial Council alone has the authority to administer pre-school education in any part of the Country even where the preschools functions within the boundaries of the plantations. No plantation companies, plantation management or the TRUST have the authority to interfere with the Preschools or Preschool education .The Companies and the Management are free to start preschools with national standards in the estate but this has not happened anywhere. They claim to be running preschools within the creche and thereby directly and indirectly violate the right for preschool education .They very well know that the Creche and the preschools are two distantly different concept and preschool cannot by run within a creche .
As indicated above, the Provincial Council has the authority to manage pre-school education within the plantation boundaries. It should be recognized and confirmed by policy that neither plantation companies , plantation management nor the TRUST have the authority to interfere in pre-school education. In order to pressurize the government and policy makers to ensure the right for Preschool education of the malaiyagm Child and the livelihood of pre-school teachers , the Malaiyagam Pre-School Teachers' forum , civil society organizations and Plantation Rural Education and Development Organization (PREDO) have jointly organized a peaceful protest and demonstration in Hatton starting with a procession on the February 22.. It is expected that hundreds of pre-school teachers, parents, and volunteers who come at their own expense without any kind of incentives will participate in this protest in large numbers.The organizers solicit the support of all Civil Society organizations and religious institutions.
Kofi Annan, former Secretary General of the United Nations, Nobel Peace Prize winner has this to say.
“Where, after all, do universal human rights begin? In small places, close to home – so close and so small that they cannot be seen on any maps of the world. Yet they are the world of the individual person; the neighborhood he lives in; the preschool, the school or college he or she attends; the factory, farm, or office where he or she works. Such are the places where every man, woman, and child seeks equal justice, equal opportunity, equal dignity without discrimination. Unless these rights have meaning there, they have little meaning anywhere. Without concerned citizen action to uphold them close to home, we shall look in vain for progress in the larger world.”
Executive Director PREDO
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by (2026-02-17 19:45:49)
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