Education authorities should provide online facilities for low income students
View(s):Online education is still being conducted in government schools due to COVID 19, but there are insufficient facilities in some rural schools.
The media had reported that many students living far away from Colombo face difficulties in internet connectivity in their areas. Some students had to climb up to higher places such as tall trees and water tank towers to engage in online classes. These actions are risky and may even pose a threat to their lives.
Some poor parents in rural areas also do not have sufficient income to afford online facilities for their children, as they need to spend their meager earnings on day-to-day expenses.
We are fortunate to have free education in our country, and this has been the case for several decades. It is a policy which is rational and practical and benefited everyone in our country.
Therefore, the education authorities concerned should intervene by supplying necessary facilities for poor students who are unable to bear the cost of proper online facilities until schools are reopened and COVID is no longer a threat. Otherwise these students will lose the opportunity to proceed in their education and they may fall behind the students who have such facilities.
-C. D. J. Weerasena