CB report encourages more online and distance learning initiatives
View(s):The experiences faced during the COVID-19 pandemic must be used in designing any future transition initiatives for online education and other alternatives to ‘in-school’ learning, the 2020 Central Bank Annual Report has suggested.
While commending the multi-sector solutions developed by the Education Ministry to tackle the challenges arising from COVID-19, the report said the pandemic also highlighted inequalities in terms of access to education.
“While the rapid transition of educational activities to digital platforms is appreciable, concerns have been raised about the effectiveness of such initiatives, especially among children from low income families and those living in remote areas,” it said.
It was reported that although mobile connectivity is high in Sri Lanka, computer literacy stands at 32.0 per cent, and only 22.2 percent of households owned a desktop or laptop computer, as per the computer literacy survey for the first half of 2020. This highlights that there are issues in terms of access to online education.
Online teaching and learning experiences over the past year highlight that, despite the relatively quick adoption of new teaching and learning methods by teachers, students, and relevant authorities, there are significant disparities in access to technology related infrastructure at school level and student level and limitations on teachers’ capacity to utilise devices for teaching.
The Central Bank highlighted the need of a coordinated multi-sectoral infrastructure investment initiative to continue blended learning approaches.
“This is crucial for the creation of effective educational outcomes, especially among disadvantaged student groups across varied family income levels and across various learning difficulties,” it said.
Last year the Central Bank said the higher education system continued to undertake academic activities via remote learning systems amidst the disruptions caused by the pandemic.
It said during the period of closure, universities rapidly initiated online learning through the Learning Management System (LMS), which had been a part of the blended learning system pursued by state universities. Last year, 502,000 Zoom sessions were conducted with a total of 22.3 million online participants from the end of March last year till the end of January this year.
“Such rapid adoption of education technology by both staff and students and their enthusiastic engagement is highly commendable. However, as in the case of school education, disadvantaged student groups may have been disproportionately impacted by the change in the mode of delivery of higher education as well,” the Central Bank said.
It was mentioned in the report that discussions with various industries reveal a broad-based shortage of skilled and semi-skilled workers across all key sectors.
“There is an urgent need for the education sector to work with key public and private industry stakeholders to identify the labour needs of the economy and focus on upskilling and reskilling efforts,” the report said. (NF)