In many rural schools across Sri Lanka, English literacy and computer skills remain painfully low. Yet, those who understand the world ahead know \u2014 without English and basic digital literacy, children will be left far behind.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Still, countless schools struggle to appoint even one permanent English teacher. Why? Perhaps because the number of trained teachers is simply not enough to cover every remote corner of our island. Or maybe because those who are appointed hesitate to take up positions in difficult, underserved areas. Some find ways to remain in urban schools under temporary attachments.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But the truth is \u2014 children want to learn.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
They want to speak a new language.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
They want to learn English.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Even if they don\u2019t fully grasp its long-term value, the desire to learn is real. If we can nurture this curiosity now, they might one day climb out of the very pits where a language barrier could\u2019ve kept them trapped. A child afraid of a language may grow up afraid of the world.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
That\u2019s why, under the “Pirunu Kusak Pirunu Hisak” initiative, we brought together children from schools without English teachers and started teaching them \u2014 even if all we had was Zoom and a shaky internet connection.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
For two whole years, despite endless tech issues, we taught them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Power cuts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
No signal \u2014 or just one flickering bar.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI can\u2019t hear you, teacher.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cNo video.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWire\u2019s chewed by monkeys.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cRestarted but still not working.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
We\u2019ve heard it all.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Through it all, five teams of dedicated teachers \u2014 joined virtually \u2014 kept going.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Still, we knew: teaching face-to-face means more.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
So we ran a pilot \u2014 a temporary, 3-month physical English classroom \u2014 just to see if we could build something beautiful, even briefly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Our goal was never to make them fluent.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It was to make them love learning English.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
And slowly, week by week, we saw that spark grow.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
We\u2019re now in Week 3.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
One girl, in a lesson on senses, shyly asked:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cMiss, what\u2019s the English word for \u0dc0\u0dc5\u0dcf\u0d9a\u0dd4\u0dc5\u0dd4 (cloud)?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I said, “Cloud, spelt C-L-O-U-D.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n
She took the marker, stood tall, and wrote it on the board herself.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
At first, she misspelt \u201cwatch\u201d as \u201cwash\u201d \u2014 but corrected it immediately. That tiny moment of effort and confidence? That’s everything.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Because even though these children are surrounded by jungle, and locked away in little villages \u2014 they still look up at the sky and wonder what\u2019s beyond the clouds.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
That curiosity? That hope? That\u2019s our mission.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
So many children like her are still hidden in rural schools, still waiting to learn. Until the Ministry decides to send every school a permanent English teacher, there\u2019s room \u2014 more than enough room \u2014 for anyone who wants to help, in any way they can.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Special Thanks:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Principal \u2014 for creating a warm and welcoming space for our teachers and students.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Dhammika Aunty \u2014 who flew from Australia for three months, dedicating herself fully to teaching English in these challenging settings.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Our Little Star \u2014 with her bright eyes and wide smile, reminds us that rural children can and will learn.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Sujith Ayya \u2014 for sending a wonderful collection of English storybooks to this school.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The students of the Faculty of Management, Rajarata University \u2014 for building a cozy English library right here.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
24.06.2025<\/p>\n\n\n\n
P.S. We didn\u2019t blur the child\u2019s face. Her joy felt too pure to hide. But if you feel otherwise, let us know \u2014 we\u2019ll change it.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
In many rural schools across Sri Lanka, English literacy and computer skills remain painfully low. Yet, those who understand the world ahead know \u2014 without English and basic digital literacy, children will be left far behind. Still, countless schools struggle to appoint even one permanent English teacher. Why? Perhaps because the number of trained teachers […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1045,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"give_campaign_id":0,"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[29,25,24],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1044","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-educational-scholarship-programmes","category-educational-seminars","category-online-educational-programmes"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/pikupihi.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/511035774_3448538871953105_4023110038826207948_n.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pikupihi.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1044","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pikupihi.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pikupihi.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pikupihi.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pikupihi.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1044"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/pikupihi.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1044\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1046,"href":"https:\/\/pikupihi.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1044\/revisions\/1046"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pikupihi.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/1045"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pikupihi.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1044"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pikupihi.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1044"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pikupihi.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1044"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}