This Prison’s no bar to a useful, gainful future within society
Few months after the opening of Suneetha Vidayalaya, the prison school in Watareka, that enables young prisoners to continue their formal education while serving their sentence, school authorities are now preparing its maiden batch of15 students to sit for the GCE O/L/ exam this year.
Speaking to the Education Times, school Principal W.L.D.R.M. Wijethunga said, extra classes have also been scheduled during August school holidays to catch up on the syllabus.
Opened in March this year, Suneetha Vidyalaya is a landmark project run by the Prisons Dept with facilities and assistance provided by the Education Ministry, for young male inmates between the ages of 16-30, to pursue a formal education at the school. Currently there are 64 children from the Ambepussa training camp and from various prisons islandwide, attending this school located adjacent to the Watareka Open Prison Camp. The school administration is made up of eight staff members including the principal.
“Most of these children are school dropouts who have not been able to continue their studies due to various problems at home, which has resulted them in going astray. Robbery and drugs being the main offences most of them are guilty of, and serve a prison term of less than five years. They have lost the love and affection of their parents. So the concept of this school is to make these young offenders feel they too are ‘school-going children’ and not prisoners. That is why this is built away from the prison environment,” said Watareka Open Prison Camp ASP Anura Gunawardena.
Under its first stage, the school conducts three separate classes for Grade 8, O/L and Informal Education. While Grade 8 and O/L classes follow the normal school curriculum preparing the children for the O/L exam, and even encourage them to follow A/L to pursue University education. Informal Education is for those who have not had any prior formal education, and unable to read and write. They are gradually taken to higher standards from basics.
In addition, the School currently has commenced a Vocational Training course on Sewing, with a few other courses such as Carpentry, Electrical course and Plumbing on the cards. At present, there are 10 students who have not completed their education up to Grade 5, and prefer to undergo the three-month Vocational Training course on Sewing instead. On completing the course, they will receive a Government recognised certificate. Speaking to the Sunday Times, some of the young inmates taking sewing lessons said, they have learnt quite a lot from basics to sewing uniforms, pillowslips, shirts etc.
The School’s IT lab equipped with 41 computers, conducts daily lessons for all three classes, which most students follow with great enthusiasm.
The prison school also organises various activities such as sports-meets, drama festivals, bakthi geetha programmes, sil programmes and special lectures aimed at moral upliftment, at regular intervals.
According to ASP Anura Gunawardena, once the inmates have completed their prison terms, a special Committee comprising of Prison welfare officials, volunteers and other Prison officials, in Consultation with the Commissioner General, take over the children to reintegrate them into society, by finding employment or help them continue with their studies. - Dhananjani Silva