{"id":116495,"date":"2021-07-25T16:46:34","date_gmt":"2021-07-25T23:46:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/?p=116495"},"modified":"2021-07-25T16:46:34","modified_gmt":"2021-07-25T23:46:34","slug":"challenges-of-electronic-delivery-of-education-in-sri-lanka","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/2021\/07\/25\/challenges-of-electronic-delivery-of-education-in-sri-lanka\/","title":{"rendered":"CHALLENGES OF ELECTRONIC DELIVERY OF EDUCATION IN SRI LANKA"},"content":{"rendered":"

BY EDWARD THEOPHILUS<\/strong><\/em><\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n

The\nCOVID-19 pandemic urged social distancing because experts on the epidemic\nbelieved that social integration through various methods will agent the spread\nof the virus, and it considers that the social distancing any method would be\nsupported to control the virus. In addition, there are health and hygiene rules\nthat are difficult to implement in the environment of Sri Lanka. The style of\neducation delivery for kids in classrooms might support the spread of the virus\nand changing the method of education delivery using technology-based education\nor electronic delivery throughout the country would be supported to the\ncontrolling effort of spreading the virus. This issue remains in all countries\nand Sri Lanka has no exception for it.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The\nsuccessful delivery of education on electronic techniques requires good\ncountrywide infrastructure facilities, it should be not only in the Colombo\ndistrict. The actual situation is, Colombo has adequate infrastructure and\nregional Sri Lanka has badly neglected in the modernization process. The ad hoc\narrangement in the current disposition has limited to perform electronic\ndelivery using a mobile phone, it is not a fecund domain and electronic\ndelivery also needs a supervised environment and facilities for students to\ntake part in a mobile phone. A small domain in a mobile phone would not support\nattracting the attention of students. This is the biggest challenge in the\neducation history of Sri Lanka.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Program\ndelivery through television is in Sri Lanka for over three decades. They are\none-way delivery that learners cannot directly take part with teachers. It is a\nteacher-centred education and the difficulty or uncontrollable situation is the\nteacher cannot control a classroom or distracting students. In Western\ncountries, religious programs are delivered using television and the success of\nsuch delivery is depending on the disciplines of participants. In this way,\nthere are two major challenges: one is maintaining the attention of students\nwithout distraction, and two is maintaining the relationship between students\nand the teacher. This system is suitable for students in grades 8 and above.\nStudents below Grade 8 need a controlled environment and how to organize such\nan environment is the challenge. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

 In Sri Lanka, management of electronic signals\nmight be a problem and the environment might be improper, and the change of\nsuch an environment would be difficult because of various reasons. Online\nfacilities must be in schools or at delivery places or homes in all districts\nand service providers should be funded by the government to offer the service\nfree. The advantage of online delivery is students can save programs and when\nthey are not clear about the program or need to view the program, it could be\ndone. It is more flexible and advantaged to learners than the face-to-face\ndelivery system. In this way, electronic delivery needs teachers\u2019 supervision\nand help. As parents are working, they cannot take part in supervision. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

This\nis a primary requirement to achieve online education and the experience in\nregional Sri Lanka appears to need more facilities for kids. Many do not know\nwhether sufficient funds have been allocated for the purpose. If the annual\nbudget has not provided allocations, alternative arrangements are needed. Trade\nunions blindly protest considering selfish issues and have ignored the major\nproblem, and they are concerned with job shedding of teachers, but the rural\ninfrastructure is the major concerned issue on electronic delivery of\neducation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On-line\ndelivery of education will be supported to eliminate social disparities in the\nsociety which incurred division among students attending excellent schools,\nlower grade or quality schools, urban schools, and village schools. Electronic\ndelivery of education will be the biggest social revolution in Sri Lanka because\neducation reforms were unsuccessful in changing society.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

As\nthe internet service is provided charging a higher fee, the use of technology\nis expensive and strict controls must be to prevent kids abusing the service\nfrom using the technology for irrelevant purposes, and iPad or computers to use\nfor students at homes and other places must be available and they should be\nreplaced when need to do so. The income structure of many parents shows they are\nnot in a position to afford the service fee and to purchase the delivery\ninstrument. In addition, protecting facilities is a concerning matter. These\nare significant issues and impediments to electronic delivery. Providing\nelectronic service is expensive, and the government encounters many issues when\nit is concerned with spending in the crisis time. Technology is dynamic and\nexpensive, and even after the Covid pandemic education delivery must be\nelectronic-based and schools need to use interactive whiteboards. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Training\nteachers for electronic delivery is also expensive. There should be at least 12\nweeks of intensive training for teaching staff as long as they become competent\nto deliver. The training facilities are needed in all districts and they should\nbe lower-level education administration. Many teachers in Sri Lanka are not\nqualified for electronic delivery of education, as they didn\u2019t get sufficient\nknowledge and skills through education and assessment outcomes using criteria.\nCurriculum development and assessment organization have been worked or not are\nunknown to parents and education administrators. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\nis difficult to understand why teachers taking trade union action against\nmodernizing education. These trade union leaders are living in the past and\nthey should get out from petty politics. Education is a nationwide requirement\nand teachers are only a part of the process.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Many\nproblems could easily be solved by saving money through restructuring and\nmicro-reforms within the education department, which spends a large sum of\nmoney for unnecessary purposes, preventing dispensable spending for various\nactivities such as scholarship examination, G.C.E.Ordinary Level examination,\nand others. Education in Sri Lanka should get away from exams’ culture to outcomes\nachievements. In this effort, examinations are about 20% of total learning.\nPractically, parents handle kid\u2019s education than teachers and the outcomes of\nstudies should be showed by students, but not parents. Parents should\ncontribute funds reasonably to educating kids except those who are\nunaffordable. The nature of Sri Lanka is parents those who are affordable for\ncontributing for expenses and not affordable are enjoyed government free\neducation facilities and this setting should be changed ignoring the political\ndifferences. Free education doesn\u2019t mean that parents are released from\nresponsibilities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Teacher\u2019s\ntraining for the application of technology, enhancement of content knowledge,\nmethods of assessing students regarding outcome achievement consistent with\nvalues,  the way of application of\nknowledge in the practical environment must be trained at least once in two\nyears and money should spend on these training purposes. If teachers are\nquality personnel, they would make quality performance and admirable service in\nthe future. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\nis a widely published view that tuition for students is business at the expense\nof parents and tuition teachers are comparatively higher earners in the country\nthan government teachers because there is no government control for providing\ntuition and free education has become a service charge oriented as teachers\u2019\nrole is not playing at school level. Inspection of teachers\u2019 roles and\nassessing them keeping in the job is not efficiently performed by the\ndepartment. Tuition teachers have not trained personnel who can properly assess\nstudents\u2019 achievement of learning outcomes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The\ndepartment of education has been addicted to a culture of holding competitive\nexaminations and creating unrest among kids and parents. The education advisors\nof the government should stand on admonition to continue the system. They are\nnot laterally thinking to change the system. Developed countries are too\nconcerned about the electronic delivery matter. If the government arranges\nequal education provision in all schools and maintains quality and control, it\ncould be successful in adapting electronic delivery and the broader use of\ntechnology for education. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The\ndepartment of education should investigate how other countries use strategies.\nIt wouldn\u2019t need Island-wide expensive exams for scholarships and year 10.\nSchools could conduct these exams like in Australia and the department of\neducation could help schools providing exam papers and training for teachers to\nassess students to conduct the exam within schools. The assessment of the\nachievement of outcomes concerns with attitudes of the assessor and it may be\nan arduous task in Sri Lanka to avoiding this issue. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The\nexamination has become a competitive exam and spends an enormous sum of money\non this purpose. The assessment of the achievement of outcomes cannot decide to\nenjoy marking like a multiple choice question paper. The assessor determines\nthe decision like a judge in the court, considering many factors. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Parents\nspend lots of money on tuition and other help for students. These are wasting\nmoney and the government can use the money for electronic infrastructure in all\nschools. Education reforms are vital for this type of radical change.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Parents\nin Sri Lanka are not so poor compared to many poor countries and 90% of parents\ncould provide iPads and laptops to kids and support the government to provide\nelectronic delivery. About 20% of total students are kids of poor parents, and\nthey should be supported by the government. \n<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However,\nrich people, past pupils, officials, so-called major schools, and politicians\nare against these reforms because poor people will gain equal opportunity,\nequity, and justice. I spoke to many Sri Lanka\u2019s born overseas who have a\nfallacious mentality and the attitudes them comprise discriminating poor than\ngiving equity and justice. Many education-related trade unions protest against\nthe reforms because they are against equity and justice in society.  <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

BY EDWARD THEOPHILUS The COVID-19 pandemic urged social distancing because experts on the epidemic believed that social integration through various methods will agent the spread of the virus, and it considers that the social distancing any method would be supported to control the virus. In addition, there are health and hygiene rules that are difficult […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":true,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[124],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-116495","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-edward-theophilus"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/116495","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=116495"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/116495\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=116495"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=116495"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=116495"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}