News
Govt. ready for school reopening but not teachers and students, say unions
View(s):By Chrishanthi Christopher
The Education Ministry has decided to reopen schools tomorrow for the second academic term, but unions say the move is premature as issues facing the education sector arising from the fuel crisis have not been solved.
The Ministry has directed that schools be opened on three days a week — Mondays, Tuesdays and Thursdays and online lessons to be held for the rest of the week.
Unions say the government has ignored requests to make education a priority by bringing it under essential services.
They say many principals, teachers and students will face transport issues as education has not been designated an essential service.
Meanwhile Education Secretary M. N. Ranasinghe admitted that online education was not effective. He said they will monitor the situation and decide on conducting classes on all five days.
Public transport is scarce in many areas and private bus owners complain they have not been prioritised and supplied with necessary fuel to run their fleet. All Island Private Bus Operators union said although CTB depots have been allocated to supply fuel to private buses they face several difficulties. “The depots are not enough. We hope to discuss the problem with the energy minister and ask him to grant us more options to pump fuel,” union president Gemunu Wijeratne said.
The All Island School Service buses said that they would resume their services only from August 1 as they face problems in pumping fuel under the new QR code system.
Meanwhile the fuel crisis in the provinces is deepening with many areas not getting fuel at all. The QR code system has not reached them yet.
Many teachers in the Eastern Province especially in difficult areas say there is no public transport to reach town areas at all. Ceylon Teachers Union (CTU) Eastern Province secretary Ponnuthurai Udayarooban said areas including Kalkudah, Pathirippu, Matur, Vaharai and Kathirveli have been completely cut off from the town areas due to lack of transport.
Online classes in these areas was unthinkable because of the lack of facilities, affordability and power cuts. “Power cuts are imposed at different times. How can we expect children to participate in online classes at the same time,” he asked. CTU Kilinochchi District Secretary T. Sivaruban said it was extremely difficult to travel even within the kilinochchi district. Online classes also was not possible with the power cuts and children from low income familes were unable to afford data cards. “Signal towers are scarce here and we hardly get continous coverage,” he said.
“Schools must open five days a week. The government should facilitate this process without delay,” he added.
Rural areas in of the North Central, Central and the plantation sectors also face severe transport issues. In interior areas of Kurunegala students do not have data coverage and even if they do they are unable to purchase data reloading cards for mobile card distributors have stopped visiting interior due to lack of fuel for their motor bikes.
CTU General Secretary Joseph Stalin charged that the schools are being opened with no prior preparations being done. School transport services have not been arranged and teachers and principals have not been prioritised in fuel distribution. He was pessimistic regarding schools returning to normalcy soon. “The government has to prioritise and make education an essential service,” he said.
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