Coming Sunday, 24 January, is the United Nations General Assembly-proclaimed International Day of Education. In light of the pandemic, Sri Lanka was forced to adapt and change its education system, conducting almost all classes online. How have we coped? Where were the pitfalls? With talk of schools reopening soon, we spoke to a few educationists and students, and here’s what they had to say.
We need a mix of both virtual and physical education: Lakna Waravita
Gateway College Sports Co-ordinator Lakna Waravita expressed that Sri Lanka has actually moved forward using virtual educational methods. She questioned the rate of success, factoring in how well students have adapted to online school. She noted: “As soon as we started teaching online, children were interested and they wanted to attend the classes. Over time, we saw that they got fed up with having no one around to talk to.”
She observed that children from rural areas have been enclosed within their homes for the last 12 months, without a proper education system. Waravita opined that we should look into a mix of both virtual and physical education because in moving forward with the changing world, students should adapt to virtual education, but not entirely. She highlighted: “Kids need physical contact, especially for subjects like physical education, design, and technology, and they cannot obtain this if classes are held entirely online.”
Students from rural, underprivileged areas suffer the most: Dr. Tara de Mel
Former Ministry of Education Secretary and Education Forum Sri Lanka (EFSL) Co-founder Dr. Tara de Mel noted that when school closures due to Covid happened in March 2020, it took a long time for the majority of Sri Lankan schools and teachers to adopt distance-learning methods. A few affluent, urban schools and students from upper socioeconomic backgrounds swiftly shifted to online teaching/learning methods, since internet access was readily available to them, as were devices like laptops, PCs (personal computers), and smartphones.
Dr. de Mel stated that this was a privilege afforded by a select few. “The Ministry of Education introduced TV-based, distance-mode teaching after some time, but that too was fraught with multiple issues. A recent study conducted by EFSL on 84 teachers from 24 districts showed that pedagogical issues and signal/device issues seriously hampered access to successful learning using the TV.” She explained that the other issues pertaining to the education system in Sri Lanka included presentation methods and time table issues, adding: “TV-based teaching is strictly not ‘interactive education’ and doesn’t promote actual learning. It simply provides passive learning through a one-way technique. Today, 10 months later, the Sri Lankan education system in this Covid era has not adapted, and is not geared to face the challenges of open and distance learning.”
As in any challenging situation, it’s always the students from rural, underprivileged areas that suffer the most. Inequalities in education provision truly came to light during Covid. Dr. de Mel stated: “With less than 45% of children of school-going age having access to the internet, and only a similar number having access to devices like PCs and laptops, we saw that a very large group of children were left out of the digital education platform.” Even though the world is talking about ‘blended learning’ and ‘flipped classrooms’ and similar innovations, the reality is that online education, with affordable and easy access to the internet and devices, still remains a dream for the majority of Sri Lankan students.
Providing a solution to this issue, Dr. de Mel added: “Until this issue is rectified, TV-based one-way teaching should be changed, in order to make it more interactive and interesting. Accessibility to TV signals, electricity, and such measures should speed up across the island. If the textbook distribution is completed to all students in a few weeks, teachers could be empowered to use the books at hand to design tutorials and discussion using the telephone or the postal service.” She elaborated that these are all suboptimal to e-learning using online methods.
She called on the Government to speedily address this digital deficit and poor internet accessibility by investing in 5G connectivity, smart classrooms, and by other methods, whilst accelerating the provision of electronic devices at minimal or zero cost, to all underprivileged students. “It will not be possible for the average Sri Lankan student to be prepared for 21st-Century education without such initiatives,” she concluded.
The standard of assessment is extremely low: Chevaan Wickremasinghe
Asian international School Student Council Member Chevaan Wickremasinghe noted that Sri Lanka has definitely changed over the last year; this is clearly shown by the lack of contact in school and the fact that meeting in person to study has been completely eliminated from the education system. “There is a huge change due to that, but I’m unsure if that change is necessarily a good thing.” He added that so far, what we’ve seen is that the standard of assessment is extremely low, meaning students are either achieve A*s or everyone fails. “The truth is this assessment is never really correct because not many people studied during quarantine for online exams; most would cheat and not revise as much as they would for an in-person exam,” he stated.
The Government and stakeholders in the education system have done as much as they can in order to adapt to the situation by providing tabs to children from rural areas and increasing online school, but, Wickremasinghe added, at the same time, it’s not the most effective thing. “It affects a lot of kids’ chances of getting into university; universities no longer know who to pick due to the lack of a standard of education.”
It is not the ideal situation: Warden of an international school
The warden of a well-known international school in Sri Lanka, who wished to remain anonymous, stated that they found the switch from offline to online education a little challenging initially, but Sri Lanka has undoubtedly adapted in terms of secondary and tertiary education. If one looks at other parts of the country, mobile devices and internet access is not readily available to students, so they find it difficult to gain any education in these troubled times. “My maid’s child attends a school in Hatton, and I know they are finding it incredibly difficult – even with the tablets that the Government provided, it’s still not easy to access education, and it is also a financial burden.”
He also firmly stated that online school is nothing like real school. “I’m not someone who stands for virtual education; I believe that children should attend school physically. It’s not only what they learn from the book – they are missing out on all the interactions with the teachers and their peers.” In terms of physical education and extracurricular activities, the physical wellbeing of students has also taken a massive hit. He stated: “Education does not focus singularly on books, we can educate children online but we’re only tuning their brain – their heart is not getting enough nourishment due to the lack of interactions and movement.”
He highlighted that it is not the ideal situation, but due to the current status of the country, we have adapted accordingly.
Main photo by Eshan Dasanayaka