CTU says online classes and homework unfair for under-privileged school children
View(s):The Education Ministry’s efforts to teach the school syllabi online failed to reach the rural students who do not have internet facilities, the Ceylon Teachers Union (CTU) declared this week.
CTU General Secretary Joseph Stalin said the online studies conducted during the COVID-19 outbreak are very discriminatory as some rural people cannot afford such luxuries for their children.
“Most families do not own a computer, not even an Android phone,” he said.
The schools in Sri Lanka are using WhatsApp and the internet to send classroom work to students, with some schools making it compulsory for students to do their academic activities from home.
Parents in rural areas had complained and said the arrangement is taxing them too much.
They said they have to go out during curfew hours in search of facilities to get the lessons and questions printed out.
Mr Stalin said the children have been working throughout the Easter and New Year holidays, which was from April 2 to April 22.
“They need their break and they don’t need to be taxed excessively,” he said.
The CTU said the children need not be taxed with too much schoolwork, as they have not lost much time to cover the syllabi of their subjects.
CC