2. In a very brief interview Kumaran Pathmanathan spells out the purpose of
education. It is strange that across space and time, the purpose and need
of education has been the same. I would like to look at the deeper
purposes of education through the eyes of KP as he is called.
Just to give the reader a taste of whom we are talking
about…………………
―This is the man who headed the arms
procurement wing and ‗international
secretariat‘ of the LTTE. KP travelled all
over the world to buy guns and other
military hardware for the Tigers.
Popularly known as KP, he was, for
long, on Interpol‘s wanted list, charged
with arms smuggling and criminal
conspiracy and was also wanted in the
Rajiv Gandhi assassination case.
After the war ended, KP was arrested in
Malaysia in August 2009. He was
detained in a ministerial bungalow in
Colombo and released in late 2012.‖
3. Discriminative Thinking
―If only I had taken education more seriously, I
would have acquired the ability to think and
analyse issues independently,‖ he says, leaning
back on his chair, at his office in Senchcholai
Children Care Home –Kilinochchi.
Education gives the children the capacity for
discrimination between right and wrong. The
capacity for discrimination is one of the highest
functions of the intellect that is developed by intellect
Education develops individuals who can think and
analyze the facts of life in an original way
4. Non-Violent Society
“Now, four years after the war, says KP, the arms struggle
was a mistake.
Attired in a white cotton shirt and grey trousers, KP
(nearly 60) looks back at his country‘s past with what
seems like regret.
Attributing the violence — spurred by the arms struggle
— to the lack of adequate education in the country, he
says: ―The last 30 years of war have pushed us
educationally further behind.‖
Children estranged from development of their intellect
resort to other ways of ego aggrandizement and seeking
of power, which hinges on base instincts of fight and
flight rather than the more orchestrated and nuanced
thinking of the intellect. Most often such children resort
to crime. Education channelizes the energy of children to
5. Hope and Confidence for
Future
“Many of them lost their parents during the war, and
some of them are injured or disabled. If they have to
come out of this trauma, education is the only means
and that is my vision now.”
“This is a community that had given up all hope over
the years. Reviving that hope and instilling
confidence is the greatest challenge at the moment,”
he says.
Education instills in children the courage and
determination to fight against odds in life.
Possessing knowledge is a far greater asset than
possessing money and the greatest insulation
6. Reason over Emotions
“Students should be left to study.
Politicians make it an emotional issue.
Emotions without reason are blind. Emotions
powered by reason are sublime. Untrained
intellects who do not possess the capacity to
think for themselves become fodder for mass
propaganda. Education gives a child the tools to
think and chose the higher emotions rather than
mass hypnosis based primal emotions. All this
takes years of incubation in a healthy school
environment.
7. You can help us in our task of providing
access to education and transforming
individuals and society by participating
and sponsoring a child through this
project.
Please visit http://www.neevschool.com
These were the reasons why we chose
to run the NEEV Rural Kids Education
Project
9. Kishan is an energetic, bright eyed boy with an ever present smile and bundles of energy. He is
son of Jasomati whose works in NEEV Herbal Handmade Soaps Unit. His father works as a daily
paid labourer
He used to play around with other boys in the village who hardly go to school because most of
the government schools hardly bother about the village kids.
His sister Puja, was adopted by a sponsor early last year ; Kishan would look at her with wistful
eyes as Puja would get ready in her school uniform, to go to school.
However, his fortunes changed when Lisa and Kellyn, interns in NEEV, sponsored Kishan’s
studies in the second term, last year. Now Kishan is proud and as happy as her sister to don his
school uniform and pack off to school.
Last year about 60 kids were sponsored by friends of NEEV. However there, are many like Kishan
who await a chance to a better future.
You are where you are because you had the privilege to get a good education. Here is your
chance to help others .
With Rs. 960/month you can sponsor a Rural Kid for the whole year. Or you can co-sponsor a
rural kid’s education for Rs.480/month.
For further details please visit
http://neevschool.com/?page_id=13
