This injustice I am referring to is twofold. A devastating blow on my professional career and the destruction caused to our premier English teacher education institution. Leaving aside the latter as the damage done is almost beyond recovery, I concentrate here on the personal injustice done to me by the high-ups of the Ministry of Education almost five years ago.

I have been writing to all imaginable authorities appealing for redress, yet they have not been decent enough to send me at least a note of acknowledgement. These personages include the then Minister, a Deputy Minister who later became a Provincial Chief Minister, two successive secretaries including the present one, Parliamentary Ombudsman, Chief Commissioner in-charge of the Colleges in question and last but not least the human rights commission of Sri Lanka. Only the Presidential Secretariat and the private secretary to the present minister whom I appealed to recently have sent me a reply to say that the matter had been referred to the due authorities, yet this ‘due authority’ appeared to have paid no heed even to the word of the head of state!

The ministry officials I contacted appear to be the least bothered even if the institution in question costing the state millions of dollars in foreign aid collapsed altogether displaying the truth of a statement once made by a foreign consultant on the issue in a letter to me deploring the attitude of the bureaucracy: We keep urging the ministry officials whenever we meet them, yet no one appears to be interested. What a colossal waste! As for the HRC, they too appear to have let me down after some correspondence more than a year ago!

It has been six months now (04.02.01) since I wrote a letter to the present Minister of Education and I have received a reply from his private secretary to say that my letter had been sent to the additional secretary in charge of education services, yet after six months I have not received even a word in reply, nor heard of any action regarding the matter.

To say another of a decent reply from the secretaries of the ministry, what may be baffling them is the nature of the issue — my complaint was about a promotion effected by the Education Service Board which is a statutory body supposed to be infallible and whose decisions cannot be challenged. The crux of the matter is that: It is under this very cloak of authority that the execrable injustice has been perpetrated by some unscrupulous bureaucrats whom, it is said, the present minister has discarded realizing their malfeasance. The vital issue here is whether we are to suffer injustices caused by haphazard use of power vested on some irresponsible individuals. Are we to condone blunders or even criminal acts committed by corrupt officials misusing the trust placed on them?

I have been a teacher - educator for the past 16 years and a pioneer lecturer in the English teacher education institution in question whose name I withhold for obvious reasons and is with the editor of ‘The Island’. Though I left the particular field for a brief spell at the W/P Education Dept. by passing the Education Administrators’ Exam (SLEAS), I was called back by the then president of the college to act as the academic VP when the post fell vacant and there was no one suitable to take over. When the post was gazetted and the interviews held, the authorities were so audacious as to appoint an individual who was not at all a teacher-educator on very private grounds!

The whole interview was a hoax where the president of the institution was not represented on the board whereas in all earlier interviews for recruiting academic staff to these colleges the president of the place was invariably on the board. Had the President been there she would never have allowed the wrong person to be appointed as she was aware of his scandalous history.

The post of the academic VP in an English teacher education institution is an eminently scholastic position that required one with a highly professional structure with a vast knowledge of the field of the English language, literature and applied linguistics on top of which experience in teacher training, research and publications in journals were essential as in academic promotions even at universities. I would very modestly claim to have in my possession all this plus a tract record of having produced many hundreds of good teachers as my pupils.

All these qualifications were vehemently brushed aside in spite of the attempts made by the chief commissioner of the colleges present on the board to bring out the points in favour of me. It was clearly a ‘put-up’ job, a swindle already pre-planned to give the appointment to the wrong person.

Subsequently to the wrong appointment I continued as a lecturer in English in the same institution and was asked by the new academic VP ‘to look after’ the work of his post as he was eying the topmost post that had fallen vacant and also because under his ignorant handling the academic section was facing a collapse. This offer I naturally refused as I did not want to take over a post that was officially denied to me.

This resistance to his authority probably impelled the usurper to get his cronies in the ministry to send me away even while there was an acute shortage of veterans and no excess of the staff — (several fresh lecturers were recruited soon afterwards.) As a result of the transfer (‘release’ as I had been on secondment) I landed up in the most uncongenial zone within the Western Province as the officer in charge of English in schools. This is real drudgery for me as consultancy at my level happens to be a largely redundant exercise at the periphery where such duties are amply performed by a large number of In-Service Advisors. It also turned out to be a ruthless punishment for me often having to walk four to five miles to schools where no transport is available. All this after having served 6 years in the difficult Hambantota District at the beginning of my career and also at the moment having a weak heart at retiring age, when I should be comfortably sitting in an academic position using my hard-gained experience in teacher education.

When I met the chairman of "the board" — a former educationist appointed on contract basis - he was at a loss to justify the heinous transfer and was compelled to let the cat out of the bag: ‘It was a minister’s order’! What a celebrity I had suddenly turned out to be to deserve a minister’s acquaintance! So after the raw deal I was given I still continue my arduous trek to schools often slumping on culvert stones while climbing steep hilly terrain to give a respite to my failing heart.

I have already lost a great deal owing to this most malicious and arbitrary transfer as my academic career with research work using the trainees was totally disrupted. Even at the time of the removal I had been engaged in a study probing into the use of target language in the classroom by my trainees which collapsed with the transfer.

The denial of my well-deserved promotion also made me lose class I in the Teacher Educators’ Service which I would have gained in five years of appointment to the post in question. It is now proffered to an individual without even a whit of experience or academic and professional qualifications as a teacher educator! Whither bound is our country if wrong personnel are given top posts everywhere? Having thus lost academically as well as professionally and been driven to the god forsaken back water of the field on the verge of retirement, I have no alternative but to contemplate premature retirement forging 3 more years of dynamic service if only I had been allowed to remain ‘In my element’.

The fate that the institution has suffered is terrible though no responsible authority appears to take any note of it, may be dazzled by the ravishing false veneer bellying the reality. Little teacher-training is said to be taking place with few students attending lectures while certain lecturers keep away under forged signatures. Moreover, while there is a perennial outcry in the country against teachers of English who cannot speak English, all key positions like the VP administration and the wardens (both male and female) are entrusted to individuals who are veritable ‘mutes’ in that language! What better standard can exist in an English teacher education institution whose academic head for five long years happened to be one trained in archaeology and cannot produce from his speech organs most vital English sounds such as the palato-alveolar fricative ISI as in the word ‘sure’ or ‘should’! Only ulterior motives can prompt a man to accept such a position without necessary qualifications and what havoc has been wrought by these motives can be brought out if the Auditor General sends some genuine officials to probe the whole show!

As for the personal damage done to me, I would only request you, Mr. Minister, to institute an urgent inquiry into the matter under your personal surveillance so that it get only what I deserve in the teacher educators’ service before I retire from public service in September this year.

The Human Rights Commission of Sri Lanka to whom I complained on the violation of my human rights by ministry officials can at least now rouse up from their deep slumber and consult the referees I have nominated in order to testify to my eligibility and if they need further witnesses they may refer to the professors of University English Departments at the National Institute of Education (NIE) Maharagama and also the Director of the British Council. A juxtaposition of each candidate’s qualifications has been sent to you by me and that can be used in this exercise and a decision taken so that I may make a legal claim for compensation.

The biggest damage done to me being the denial of access to the academic locale — the teacher training sphere — I have barely managed to keep up my spirits by writing newspaper articles on my school experience, a kind of catharsis in my predicament for which I am deeply indebted to our esteemed journal ‘The Island’, a steadfast guardian of justice.
— An English Teacher Educator