Present education system can be used to take lessons from classrooms to homes: EFSL
View(s):Referring to the continuous school closures and the Government’s failure to come up with a proper system to educate school children during the pandemic, The Education Forum Sri Lanka (EFSL) recently said the Education Ministry lacked preparedness to disseminate education to students during emergency times .
Despite school closures in March 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic which extended through the entire year until 2021, the Government had failed to come up with a decisive plan to take education to the children, EFSL said in a media statement last week.
EFSL is an institution committed to the development of education in the country. It said the present education systems is sufficiently equipped with resources that could be satisfactorily used to take the lessons in classrooms to students in their homes.
It has been pointed out that 246,952 teachers in 10,165 schools can effectively take the syllabuses to the 4.3 million students across the country. For this purpose, available channels including televisions and mobile phones can be used, EFSL said.
Digital content developed by the National Institute of Education (NIE) and other educational organisations can be uploaded onto these channels so the students can learn.
It said studies have proved offline resources including text books and videos of lessons viewed on television using pen drives and group calls on mobile phones can give satisfactory learning experiences to children.
A recent survey showed that around 95%of households have mobile phones and televisions in
Sri Lanka.
Further, EFSL urges the Government to implement its plans to bring education reforms to the system early this year, so the 2021 students in higher grades can experience the benefits of the reforms.
It insists that changes should also include the elimination of redundant and overlapping material in the syllabuses, that has proved to be a tedious learning process to students.
In a set of proposals put forward, EFSL has suggested the centre should provide a compact curriculum covering essential competencies in subjects such as math and languages, and in other subjects allow teacher freedom to integrate learning outcomes.
Also to develop diagnostic tests to identify ‘learning lag’ on essential competencies in students that can be made available for school in self assessments.
The Forum said that while it is committed to supporting the Government in formulating policies on emergency preparedness of schools it should be borne in mind that ‘one size does not fit all’ referring to the closing of all schools in the country, when a particular area in the country is affected.
The factors that affects schools in Colombo or Gampaha will not the factors that affect a school in a remote area of the country, the media statement also said.
Decisions, such as opening and closing schools, should be decentralised so teachers and principals are not overwhelmed by the sudden decisions to open and close schools, EFSL said.
Another recommendation by EFSL was for a data collection mechanism in schools, to keep track of the extent of essential competitiveness covered by schools.
It also suggested for the introduction of a technology supported blended learning in classrooms. This was recommended to ease the transition of the learning process to a home-based model during emergency situations. -CC