A programme to connect students for online classes at 1,000 centres by giving priority to selected specialized schools in areas where there is no connectivity will be activated from July 5. Education Reforms State Minister Susil Premajayantha speaking at a press conference held in Colombo yesterday said there were several methods of providing distance education.
“One is that in many developed countries online education is accompanied by technology. The next is to provide through electronic media.
The then Minister of Education started the Guru Gedara program in April 2020 as a start in March last year when COVID-19 epidemic was started. The Sri Lanka Rupavahini Corporation (SLBC), started learning the main subjects in Sinhala medium one day and Tamil medium one day from 4 am to 11 pm for a very small amount of broadcasting cost. We teach children using Nethra and Channel Eye as well as other private channels today. We use those two channels to teach children the subject of Mathematics only through teachers from July 1 to Grade 05 to 06 five days a week. In addition, the same English Channel has given 5 hours a day on English medium and other subjects. In addition, it is hoped that to tech students through 16 channels from Grade 01 to Grade 13 via satellite will be launched in the next two months. We work with experienced teachers to create programs according to the teacher’s manual so that we can succeed in two months. “Furthermore, E-Thaksalawa is operating and Free internet access for children to access e-Thaksalawa online. The next question is connectivity. We are now organizing an alternative program for this. We will select a school to bring children without connectivity in a safe manner and we will also provide the necessary facilities to the children. Tabs and laptops are provided to those centers. We need to understand that in my opinion this task is not that easy to do online. It’s Difficult. Even in other countries the online method is used.
We can do this program most successfully. Everyone in the field of education should be kept active and during this time when the children are at home, they should embark on a program of teaching the subject through activities from home.