The Human Rights Commission of Sri Lanka (HRCSL) held an inquiry into the death of a 19-year-old male student from the Methodist Central College in Batticaloa following a complaint made by Ceylon Teachers’ Union (CTU) Batticaloa District Secretary Ponnuthurai Udayarooban against the Zonal Director of Education Sujatha Kulendrakumar, the school’s principal, and the Provincial Education Department.
“The hearing related to a complaint filed by a civil organisation regarding the claim of a student who died by suicide while studying in an Advanced Level (A/L) class of a school in the Batticaloa District was held on 13 December at the Head Office of the HRCSL under the HRCSL Chairperson Justice (Retd.) Rohini Marasinghe,” read the media release issued by the HRCSL.
Speaking to The Morning, Kulendrakumar informed that the student in question had completed his Ordinary Level (O/L) Examination at Colombo International School and was transferred to Batticaloa by his parents, who resided there, following the discovery of an illness.
“He was following the local A/L Science stream, but he was finding it difficult to study because of his illness. His parents wanted him to study science and enter a medical faculty. He was not getting very low marks. He was scoring simple passes. There are many students faring worse than him. We held a discussion aimed at motivating students to increase their marks. It was arranged by the school and we met each student individually. Since people don’t like their marks displayed publicly, we decided to do so individually.
“This student was scheduled for a discussion with the school principal, myself, and the subject teachers on 11 November at 7.45 a.m. He arrived with his parents at 8 a.m. and vomited only 30 minutes into the discussion. The principal told me that he had an illness, as I was not aware of an illness until then. He was rushed to the hospital, but had passed away the same night. He had ingested poisonous seeds before attending the discussion.
“I do not know why he did it, and neither do his parents. Udayarooban has made a complaint against me, blaming me for what happened. I am doing my duty as the Zonal Director. Batticaloa has been placed first in the island for the O/L Examination before, and these people don’t like that, which is why they are making complaints. I am doing my duty. Even the child’s parents spoke to me and told me that I am helping the children and doing what is right, and they said that it was sad for them to see their child like this. They have not made any complaint to the Police or to the HRCSL or any other authority; it is only Udayarooban who is against me. The student’s mother told me that he had said that he wanted to destroy the clinic he was being treated in and had argued that he was not a patient. We never blame students for anything, as all we do is advise and motivate them,” said Kulendrakumar.
Contrary to Kulendrakumar’s statement, Udayarooban told The Morning that the former is to be blamed for the student’s alleged suicide, claiming that she had compared scores publicly, which had mentally affected the student.
“His illness had nothing to do with it. There is no circular saying that the Zonal Director has to compare marks and publicise them to everyone. She makes the students visit her with their parents. No other Zonal Director does this. Either the principal or the teacher should personally speak to the parents and the children, because this competition in scoring is putting mental pressure on the children,” said Udayarooban.
When contacted by The Morning, HRCSL Media Spokesman Nihal Chandrasiri informed that the complaint was made against Kulendrakumar, the Methodist Central College Principal, and the Provincial Education Department, and that an inquiry was held on 13 December with the mentioned parties, where further investigations into the matter were ordered. He further stated that the student’s postmortem report was not available yet.
“According to the information that we have received thus far, we know that the student died because of the poisonous seeds that he consumed, but we are still awaiting the postmortem report to confirm that it was suicide,” said Chandrasiri.