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The Saraswathy Scholarship Program (SSP), was initiated in February 2021. The program provides incentives to primary school going children from schools in the vicinity of Saraswathy Illam – Ramanalayam in Kadduvan, Tellipallai, Sri Lanka. In 2022 we are offering scholarships to 143 children from 5 schools with generous support from sponsors across the world. The schools selected are Earlalai American Mission Tamil Mixed school in Earlalai, Myliddy South Gnanodaya Vidyalayam in Kadduvan, Pon Paramananthar Maha Vidyalayam in Kurumbasiddy, Varuththalaivilan American Mission Tamil Mixed school in Varuththalaivilan and Kattuvanpulam Maha Vidyalayam in Kadduvan. All schools are situated in the Tellippalai division of Jaffna district. Invariably this area where these schools are, was affected severely by the war that ravaged the country from the 1970s to 2009 and many of the locations were released for public re-settlement only since 2016. In particular, the premises of Myliddy South Gnanodaya Vidyalayam was released only in 2019 and the school was rebuilt in 2020. All these schools (except Kadduvanpulam) have only up to grade 5 in their curriculum. The number of primary students in these schools vary from 20 to 85. Most families of students studying in these schools are resettled families, after 30 plus years of displacement. The parents are largely daily wage earners and most struggle to meet their household expenses from the wages earned.
Through this scholarship program, children targeted are attested by the Village Head (Grama Niladhari) as living in low-income families, families with single parents or those without a family member to look after them. One of the specific criteria for selection is, even if the child is not a high performer academically, they should have an acumen and interest for education and are capable of better performance if their economic situation improved.
The students selected for this program are primary school students in grades 1 to 5. On the advice of the Scholarship Committee and the Principals of the schools, the scholarship amount decided for students are Rs 1,000 per month for grade 1 & 2 students, Rs 1,500 for grade 3 students and Rs 2,000 for the remaining classes. The funds provided could be spent under 3 categories only, educational materials such as books and exercise notes, uniforms or related materials and private coaching at the recommendation of the school or teacher.
The funds needed for the education support of one child per year is Rs 26,400. For 2022 the total funds required is Rs 2,737,600. We have obtained unprecedented support for this program and have mostly met the target. Funds disbursed to students from all 5 schools until June 2022, are Rs 1,120,872.