ABSTRACT
Gonakelle Tamil Vidyalayam (School) nestles high in the Namunakelle Mountains in the Passara district to the east of the central highlands of Sri Lanka. Tea bushes, draped like velvet over the lower peaks, surround the school and stretch into the far distance. Today is 28 March 1989, and 644 children out of the 811 enrolled are in attendance. Of the total number of students enrolled, 467 are boys and 344 girls. Thirteen of the fifteen teachers are present. The children, whose ages range from 5 to 17 years, begin arriving at the school around 7.15 a.m. They are all Tamils and all live inside the Gonakelle estate or on neighbouring tea plantations, which are owned by the government and managed by the Janatha Estates Development Board. The primary cycle children in years 1 to 5 are drawn entirely from the Gonakelle estate, itself divided into five divisions. Ail but two are the children of resident estate workers. The children living in the closest division arrive at the school singly or in pairs; those from the faraway division are shepherded in groups by kanganis, men employed by the estate to deliver and collect the children daily. Some of the older children, drawn from ten other feeder primary schools within a fourmile radius of Gonakelle, complete part of their daily journey by bus. This is the beginning of a typical day in the life of Gonakelle plantation school.
