My SAITM Story
By Sahani Koralage –March 11, 2017
Sahani Koralage
Laying their life story bare in public in order to urge a government to take a policy decision is not something any student, studying anywhere in the world should ever have to face. In the face of wholesale lies that’s been spread around, We; the long suffering students of SAITM had no choice but to do this. This post has absolutely no intention of seeking public sympathy and I humbly request all who are prejudiced otherwise, to kindly not read any further.
#MySAITMStory
#මගේSAITMකතාව
I was born as the first child in a middle class family. Luckily enough, to a father who’d do anything in his power to give his daughter the best life possible and to a mother who’s enlightened thousands of students including me in their way forwards in the academic world.
Both my parents being government workers, their collective salary rarely exceeds 60,000/= lkr per month.
I went to a private Montessori (1996-1997) (fee levying) before starting school in 1998. With utmost difficulty my father managed to enroll me in a then prestigious government girl’s collage. For thirteen years since then, I enjoyed ‘free’ education at Viharamaha Devi Balika Vidyalaya, Kiribathgoda.
Was it entirely free of charge? No. My father had to spend for various stuff each year.
My parents strongly believed against tuition during the period of my primary education so, as a consequence, I was blessed with the best imaginable childhood filled with storybooks, fruits off the trees I used to climb, skinned knees and a bunch of friends to go crazy with. Up until I finished grade 5 scholarship exam (2002) my parents never made me sit and study anything unless I did it on my own. Having scored 135 where the pass mark was 134, I remember my father doing his first serious talk with me the night of the results day ,amidst the hype of receiving phone calls( 90% of them starting with “අයියෝ අපරාදෙ ටිකක් මහන්සි උනා නම් කොළඹ ඉස්කෝලෙකට යන්න තිබුණා” )
[Which I find strangely similar (and just as disgusting) to “අපරාදෙ තව පාරක් කලා නම් medicine යන්න තිබුණා” that I get from many even today ]
But my father told me , “This mark is 100% yours and you have done well. Don’t compare it with anyone elses’ cause your circumstances and theirs are not the same. Just remember a scholarship exam is by no means decisive of your capability. ”
With that planted strongly in the back of my mind I started my secondary studies in the same school in English medium. We were the first batch to face O/Ls under the new syllabus and the second batch of the school to face it in English medium. Teachers were fairly new and for some subjects we didn’t have a teacher for a whole year. I faced my GCE O/Ls in 2008 December and got my results ( 9As) on April 4th 2009 (Yes. After four months, cause our system is ‘that’ efficient.)
By that time I was set up on doing Biology for A/Ls just because I was fascinated by science, specially human anatomy since I was 12 and I loved making my own notes, referring books that were meant for people much older than me. My father wanted me to do languages (Apparently because I kept on scribbling ever since he can remember and managed to secure all island merits in literature and composition) but didn’t force me in to anything. Only thing he said was, “don’t do bio just because you fancy a steth around your neck” which was fine by me since I never had a doctor fantasy ever in my life. My father made me look at it like just another job which is falsely glorified in the Sri Lankan context. I’d rather fancy being a scientist, I told him.
My school started classes for A/Ls in 2009 August (four months after O/L results) I was set to do my A/Ls in English medium as well.(despite the lack of resources in my school) because I was so used to referencing and making my own notes , that it drove me crazy trying to adapt to Sinhala specially when it came to Biology. (by this time, I’ve tried a month of Sinhala medium classes with no luck.) Again we were the first batch to face A/Ls under the new syllabus so our teacher’s guides and curricula came sickeningly late. ( just how efficient the free education system was) To be exact, the chemistry curriculum only came out six months before the exam.
For my A/Ls I never attended a mass tuition class. For two reasons
1. There were no proper tuition classes in English medium in my area.
2. I was making my own notes based on the teachers’ guides and curricula.
Nevertheless for biology I had the help of this amazing lady Mrs. Kalupahana and for physics, that of very kind and dedicated sir from St. Thomas’ collage; Mr. Upali.
I faced my A/Ls in 2011 August and waited for months before the release of results on 26th December, Which was without a doubt, the most epic fail in the history of all results’ releases. Fun fact- I have four different printouts from the doenets.lk website carrying four different sets of results in each. Amongst all the havoc, I applied for biology, applied biology and Indigenous medicine degrees offered by the state with the B,C & S I got that time since there were only two ways I could get where I wanted to go , one being a BSc in biology and a masters in molecular biology leading to a career in medical research the other being an MBBS which can directly lead to a career in medical research. For everything to get processed and for the system to take us in to universities it took forever! I’ve completed my second shy with BBC and CIMA (cert BA ) by the time University of Kelaniya offered me the BAMS degree for free. Even though I’ve already applied for a Russian scholarship for MBBS and for SAITM by that time, I thought I’d give this free degree a try since I loved the field and I could still go in to medical research with that. Got enrolled on 23rd April 2013 and spent three months in pure hell in the name of ragging where there was no freedom of education AT ALL. By this time I’ve received a vacancy for BSc in applied biology at University of Rajarata. I got enrolled there having left the hell hole in UOK and at about the same time I got called in for interviews at SAITM.
