My (Typical) Pera Story
By Sarath Bandara –March 22, 2017
My name is Sarath Bandara and I was born, the eldest of three children, in Radagama, about 10 km from Anuradhapura. My parents were teachers in the local school, my father an Arts graduate from Peradeniya and my mother teaches in the primary classes. I began schooling in my parent’s school as my father’s friends in the Education department could not help me enter Anuradhapura Central because 10 km was too far away. However I found later that there were many students in the school who lived even further away, but got admission through political influence or by paying money. The advantage of being admitted straight away to a big school in a city was that one not only had good teachers but could continue there even if one did badly in the Grade 5 scholarship examination.
I could only hope that I would do well in the Scholarship examination and get into Anuradhapura Central, something I was able to do because I think of the attention and commitment of my teacher parents. Most of the students in my school did not fare too well and so had to continue in the village school. Prospects for University education for them were low, as they had to do well at the O/L to move out, very difficult as there were no good teachers in Science, Mathematics or English in the school.
Studying at Anuradhapura Central was not very easy as I had to leave home before 6 in the morning and could not stay behind for sports as the last bus left at 4. However, thanks to being in that school, I obtained 6 As but only Cs in Mathematics and English at my O/L examination. There were only one or two Bs and no As in these subjects as even big schools in our area cannot get good teachers in Science and Mathematics to stay on. My O/L results were released when I was 17 and I could begin my A/L only at 18 and sit for it only when nearly 21. So I was really surprised to hear that our SAITM nangis could enter Medical school at 16.
In my first attempt, my Z-score was too low for Medicine, something which my mother was very keen I should do. In my second attempt, I put in lot of effort spending most weekends in tuition classes at Anuradhapura. Since my parents could not afford this, I did O/L tuition in science for students in my village to pay for it. I did very well in my second attempt obtaining three As, qualifying for medicine with a rank allowing me to choose my University. My father was overjoyed that I could enter his old University, Peradeniya rather than the nearby Rajarata University. With the delays in release of results and University admission procedures, I was 25 by the time I entered Peradeniya. When I got there I realized the District Quota was sometimes unfair with many students from big schools just outside Kandy like Poromodulla Central entering with low Z-scores because they were from Hanguranketha, Nuwara Eliya district although they were close enough to attend tuition classes in Kandy. However there were also students from deprived areas like Moneragala who were able to enter though District Quota.
I was lucky in that being from Anuradhapura, I could get hostel facilities but unlucky in that I could not apply for Mahapola as my parents combined teacher salaries were too high. This meant that I had to find some other source of income as my parents with two more children to support were finding it rather difficult. I was rather wary about staying in the hostel having heard and read about the rag. However the rag appeared to be less for medical students as our seniors too busy with work, although I must admit that if I did not agree to be in the rag, my hostel stay would have been unpleasant. I had no alternative as I could not pay five times as much for a room. Only those who travel from homes around the University could avoid being ragged but even they would lose out as they would be prevented from participating in sports and batch activities. However the medical faculty rag was fairly mild with a few seniors catching me alone and scolding me in bad language, forcing us having to share meals with four or five others in the canteen and walk two by two like schoolchildren when leaving the Faculty. Ragging in the hostel was also faculty based, so that ragging of medical students were less.
