Seventeen-year-old Nirushi lives in a single-income home in Veyangoda, a tiny town in the Western Province. Her father is the family’s main breadwinner and his daily drive to work takes 90 minutes. Although a single source of income implies fewer comforts, Nirushi’s mother opted to remain at home in order to fund the schooling of her two children. Nirushi’s parents are ardent believers that providing their children a decent education is the best way to create a brighter future for them.

Due to the coronavirus epidemic, Sri Lankan schools — like many outside — were obliged to move to an online learning system in early 2020. Nirushi was among the schooling population who are now studying in this new format, which she characterized as a totally “new experience”.

 

Internet Issues

“Initially it was hard to connect [to the internet] but after a time, the experience became better,” she added, adding that she did had connection issues on and off straight through. The Nittambuwa region that Veyangoda belongs to is classed as semi-urban, but Nirushi’s experience is an indicator of how undeveloped the internet infrastructure is in numerous sections of the island.

Seventeen-year-old Ravindu lives in Thalawathugoda, a suburb of Colombo, and attends a private school in Borella. He will be appearing for his GCE A-Level tests next year. “My neighborhood has a lot of power cuts,” he continued, “although [despite the lockdown], the internet connection, unexpectedly, has been fine.”

However, when questioned about how other attendees’ connections influenced his learning he stated, “Classmates [didn’t] effect it at all, professors, however, if they have lousy connections, will typically spoil the class as nobody learns anything!”

This is a perfect illustration of how the learning process may be halted regardless of where you live or where you go to school. Ravindu and Nirushi’s stories also indicate that even if an individual student may have no issue attending an online school, challenges faced by their friends and instructors will effect their experience as well. 


Quality Drop 

Another prominent concern among students was a substantial reduction in the quality of their education, compared to when they were physically attending school.

Ashanthi* (19) resides in Mahabellana near Bandaragama and claimed that before to the epidemic. Like the other kids, she had challenges with internet access when school was held online, but, Ashanthi stated, “I have [also] observed a deterioration in the quality of instruction. One of the reasons for this is that we are not able to practice certain practicals connected to the teachings, in the manner we do it in school with a teacher.”

Dr Sujata Gamage, a senior research fellow at regional think tank LIRNEasia, said the government has to prioritise bringing A-Level students to school so that they are able to conduct their practicals. Dr Gamage has been exploring the influence of COVID-19 on education, and her work resulted in a report on innovations in education in both Sri Lanka and Bangladesh during the pandemic, which looks carefully at the role of ICT in education.

Solutions?

Sri Lanka has lifted the current lockdown, and schools are in the process of opening once again to pupils. A vaccine drive for students has also been initiated, and the administration thinks the country will soon be stable enough to recover from the consequences of the epidemic. But because schools cannot operate to full capacity owing to health laws that must still be enforced for as long as the epidemic rages, many schools are looking at hybrid models through which the school offers lessons both online and offline.

Towards that goal, students themselves have suggestions on how they would repair the flaws they’ve met so far with the online education approach. “Aspects that may be addressed are basically the contact between instructors and students,” Ravindu informed us. “Teachers should be significantly more involved with their pupils, rather than merely reading from a PowerPoint or handing printouts.” He emphasized that sharing a screen or having pupils print out documents did nothing to stimulate them to study. “They should discover more engaging and exciting techniques of educating the pupils particularly during a time that a student’s distraction is at its peak because they’re at home,” he added.

Transmission Method

What Ravindu describes is a ‘transmission’ form of teaching that has been popular in Sri Lanka even prior to the epidemic. “...teachers use this ‘transmission’ form of teaching because they have to cover the syllabus,” Dr Gamage stated. “If we simply do this dull broadcast style, youngsters just tune out, they don't listen. When you perform activities you cover the syllabus in exciting ways and when it's time to remember it's simpler to remember.”

In addition to this, a non-academic-related weakness of online learning has showed itself in the loss of the “school experience” and an overall diminished morale among students.

“This is my final year of school, so I have lost out on having those key experiences others have before they leave school,” Ashanthi remarked.

Balance and Normalcy

Bolstering student morale and maintaining their motivation is key in ensuring a good work environment. [Students] should have a routine, get a little fresh air and exercise,” Dr Gamage said, which could retain a sense of normalcy for as long as online school continues.  

The long-term repercussions of a learning population schooled in what they themselves describe as an inferior system are yet to be seen, but experts like Dr Gamage feel education authorities can still make the best of an unideal situation by adapting the existing curriculum to phase out transmission teaching and bring more interaction between students and teachers to improve the quality of students’ learning. The Education Forum Sri Lanka is already carrying out a pilot to demonstrate the concept.