Housing and Construction Minister Sajith Premadsa had to intervene to settle an impasse between protesting parents and school authorities at Hambantota, after two of the four protesting parents were hospitalised due to dehydration. Four parents launched a hunger strike atop a tree, following the rejection of their children to the year one class of a village [...]

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Tree-top protest brings results to students

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Housing and Construction Minister Sajith Premadsa had to intervene to settle an impasse between protesting parents and school authorities at Hambantota, after two of the four protesting parents were hospitalised due to dehydration. Four parents launched a hunger strike atop a tree, following the rejection of their children to the year one class of a village school in Dambarella, Hambantota and two of them had to be rescued by villagers who put up a scaffolding on Friday to reach them and take them to hospital.

The problem arose when the authorities had told the parents to admit their children to the Kandaketiya Primary School.
However the parents said that the Kandaketiya Primary School was 3.5 km away from the village, whereas the school in Dambarella was just 250m away. “There is no bus service to the Kandaketiya school and our children would have walk the distance,” they said.

Earlier, the authorities, including the Zonal Director of Education Hambantota, had held a meeting with the parents of the affected children and assured them the children would be granted admission to the village school. However, two weeks after the promise was made, they were informed that the children would not be granted admission to the village school.

Subsequently the parents had approached politicians in the area and voiced their grievances, but as they were unable to settle the problem, four parents of the affected students had begun a hunger strike atop a tree in front of the school.

On the third day of the strike, two of the parents had fainted from dehydration and lack of food. And villagers had to rush them to hospital at Talawa. The problem was ultimately resolved when Housing and Construction Minister Sajith Premadsa intervened and provided a temporary building to Dambarella Primary School so that it could accommodate more students.

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