Foreign education officials visit tsunami hit Jaffna, Mullaitivu

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 22 February 2005, 15:48 GMT]
Mr.Fred van Leeuwen, General Secretary of the Education International (EI) and Mr.Aloysius Mathews, Chief Co-ordinator of the EI, Asia Pacific region accompanied by Mr.T.Mahasivam, General Secretary of the Ceylon Tamil Teachers' Union (CTTU) Monday visited the tsunami hit coastal areas in the districts of Jaffna and Mullaitivu, sources said.

The EI officials arrived in Palaly by special aircraft and visited displaced Vasavilan Central Maha Vidiyalayam, which is currently functioning in Urumpirai. Vasavilan has come under the High Security Zone (HSZ) demarcated by Sri Lanka security forces.

The officials held discussion with the Principal and teachers of the school and inspected the classroom facilities provided by the education department, sources said.

The team then proceeded to Killinochchi via A9 highway and met with Mr.V.Ilankumaran, Head of the Thamileelam Education Council and had discussions on current educational activities in the LTTE held Vanni region.

They later toured the visited coastal areas in Mullaitivu affected by the tsunami and saw the destruction to the social infrastructure there.

On their return trip to Jaffna from Vanni they toured the coastal areas in Vadamaradchchi division hit by tsunami and met with the representatives of the LTTE at the office of the District Task Force located in Nelliyady. They were briefed on the relief and reconstruction activities in the Vadamaradchchi division, sources said.

EI officials later visited Point Pedro Hartley College located in the North's HSZ.

They also attended meetings held Monday evening at Kopay Teacher Training College and Jaffna Hindu Ladies College, sources said.