By Marianne David The Government’s ad hoc policies relating to education, especially over the last two years since the onset of the pandemic, have been deeply harmful to children. Recently a decision had been made to charge State-run schools for their water supply, another was the decision by the Western Provincial Council to stop printing test papers for term exams due to the lack of paper (which has now reportedly been resolved), and Education Minister Dinesh Gunawardena last month stated that over 850 schools had reportedly closed down. Meanwhile, on Friday the Public Utilities Commission of Sri Lanka (PUCSL) made a recommendation to the Ministry of Education to declare early holidays from 4 April for students as they were being inconvenienced by the lengthy power cuts. Here, The Sunday Morning speaks to Education Forum Sri Lanka (EFSL) Co-founder and member of the Worldwide Commission to Educate All Kids (post-pandemic) Dr. Tara de Mel and EFSL Co-founder and LIRNEasia Senior Research Fellow Dr. Sujata Gamage on the issues ailing education in Sri Lanka and the urgent steps needed to set things back on the right track. Following are excerpts: What are the steps that need to be implemented starting now in order to ensure we do not fail children, the most vulnerable section of society? How should our schools and education system be transformed? Dr. de Mel: Hot on the heels of a long-term, pandemic-led school closure, this unprecedented economic crisis is going to disrupt school education. Firstly, the authorities need to understand this and acknowledge the gravity of this situation. The country is in a free-fall, economically and otherwise. As I see it, an educated set of children is the only hope left, if the country is to recover someday, since that would be the human capital on which a nation can be rebuilt. As it is, young people are leaving the country in droves, so whoever is left behind should not be deprived of continued education.  Immediate steps must be taken to address and alleviate the problems that would prevent children from attending school – transportation for a start. School vans should be given fuel allocations as a priority category. School uniform material should be made available for Grade 1 students who are being enrolled as we speak. In certain national schools parents are being advised to buy uniforms from a specific shop recommended by the school. During 2021 most textbooks weren’t distributed in January, and parents worry that in 2022 the same might happen. This is a very serious issue. Free uniform material has been given since the early 1990s, and continued even during the hardships of the war. Free uniforms and textbooks are two major incentives that draw children from underprivileged homes to school, in addition to a mid-day meal. Today, all three seem to be in jeopardy.  We have the issue of term-end exams being rescheduled due to lack of paper, and I wonder if textbook printing will suffer a similar fate? Smaller schools are closing due to lack of basic facilities. Where are we heading? Dr. Gamage: As Dr. Tara de Mel said, first the Ministry must accept the gravity of the situation. You don’t need to be an economist to understand that. Imagine as a family you have sold all your cashable assets such as gold and you have to borrow more to pay off debtors, but lenders are not lending anymore because you have been downgraded as a lending risk. Your earnings are barely enough to meet half of your expenses. What would a family do in such a situation? A family would of course prioritise children’s needs. It is no different for a country. The nutrition and education of our children should come first. What we are seeing is exactly the opposite. We are seeing that children are like canaries in the mine. The first reported instance of the public sector getting hit by the crisis is when the Treasury that had hitherto paid the water bills refused to continue to pay and the Water Board sent the bills to schools. Next, we hear that the Western Provincial Council has no paper to print examination papers. On the other hand, the Government merrily announces the opening of 1,000 national schools, recruiting 20,000 graduates, and providing smart TVs to schools. Does the right hand of the Ministry know what the left hand is doing? As for the new initiatives, name boards will not make a national school. Initial capital spending too will not make one. If the Government does not allocate sufficient funds for the day-to-day operations of these schools, parents will be left to  bear the cost, year after year, as is the case now, and the ‘national’ standard of the school will depend on the wealth of the parents. All current national schools are not ‘popular schools’ and for a good reason. Some schools are popular because school development societies and individual parents in those schools contribute to top up the Government’s meagre grants by 10-, 100-, or 1,000-fold depending on the wealth of the parents in a school. In a case study, EFSL found that the annual per student spending for essentials and student development can vary greatly from a few hundred rupees in an average school to about Rs. 700 in a school where a principal makes a full effort to raise additional funds and Rs. 10,000 or more per student in a school like Royal College. More teacher recruitments too will not address teacher shortages unless there is realistic policy for fair and efficient teacher deployment across the schools. Ad hoc policies like stipulating that newly recruited teachers must stay in one place for 10 years are not reasonable. An open database of teacher placement is an essential part of a teacher placement policy. The Government has indeed said that it will introduce an online transfer system for teachers. The system must be in place before any more teachers are recruited. Otherwise it will be the same old placement of teachers for political purposes. Then there’s the issue of basics such as water for schools. Also, where does printing of exam papers fit into the order of education priorities? Perhaps some practical and creative digital solutions are in order here. The Government needs to prioritise education spending within a coherent plan. The ad hoc approach will hurt those who need help the most. Deeper changes such as a new budget and doing away with all but essential ministries may have to be considered. The country is in dire straits. The sooner we accept it, the better we can protect our children from harm.  There is clearly a funding problem at play when it comes to education. When paper itself is unaffordable, it does not bode well for school education. In this backdrop, how does the plan to allocate Rs. 500 million to provide smart TVs for 7,000 schools make sense? Is that necessary, will it serve the envisaged purpose, or can that money be better used in other areas?  Dr. de Mel: Investing Rs. 500 million for smart TVs seems like a crazy idea – particularly in the current situation of daily power outages, which are unlikely to stop any time soon. Besides, is that the need of the hour? We need to fulfil the basics and get the kids back to school first, then ensure that they are exposed to learning through an academic recovery plan, to catch up for losses during the pandemic-led closure.  In terms of learning losses during the pandemic, could you tell us about the extent of the impact and what needs to be done to address the situation?  Dr. de Mel: It’s unfortunate that Sri Lanka doesn’t have reliable data and evidence from studies done during the pandemic school closures, on how much learning our children lost. One of the first sets of studies on learning losses to be published came from five countries in the African continent – Ethiopia, Kenya, Liberia, Tanzania, and Kenya. They estimated that short-term learning losses can accumulate into 2.8 years of long-term learning loss and that over ambitious curricula which are not adjusted for the losses, and where targeted instruction is not delivered, can add to the burden. Subsequently many countries have published Learning Losses and Academic Recovery Plans from individual countries from the global North as well as the global South. Covid-19 presented the world with a wonderful opportunity for reforming curricula as per student needs, without just a one-size-fits all approach. Some countries have taken advantage of that opportunity.  A Government survey done in 2020 showed that only 22.2% of households owned a laptop/PC and nearly 75% of students attending Government schools did not have home-based computers. What does the Government need to do to enable distance learning and how can Sri Lanka ensure access to and affordability of online learning? Dr. de Mel: Yes, when the pandemic hit those were the statistics, but in 2021 there was a certain amount of recovery in that, since most parents who didn’t have devices bought smartphones, even though one phone often had to be shared by many siblings and parents in the same family. Internet connectivity through data packages also became more accessible, even though we continued seeing children scaling trees and rooftops for signals. And the Government had initiated a fibre connectivity programme in some 600 schools. Yet, this is not enough for a digital learning rollout across 10,100 Government schools. Future jobs and thereby economic recovery rests on digital learning, tech-based education, and STEM education – all of which should form components of a comprehensive digital economic recovery plan. The Government has to re-prioritise its allocations of funds. For instance, a few weeks ago I read that the Government was constructing 10 IT parks, each at the cost of Rs. 10 billion! I also came to know that in order to connect all 10,100 Government schools with broadband, it would cost something like Rs. 8 billion. If another few billions are added for devices like a laptop or tablet for each student, still the total cost would be something like Rs. 15-20 billion – the cost of two IT parks!  What are the subjects we need to prioritise in this digital age? What are the skills our students – and our teachers – will need and how should curricula change to keep up? Dr. de Mel: I consider the lack of teacher education and learning for teachers as one of the most serious debacles in this pandemic tragedy. Teachers had to navigate in a sea of ignorance when schools abruptly shuttered and they were expected to teach online! Most didn’t have devices or internet connectivity, and those who did had no idea what pedagogical skills were required for switching to digital platforms and to teaching online. Most resorted to ‘WhatsApp education,’ by sending notes and paragraphs from textbooks via WhatsApp. Yes, they tried their best and did their utmost, with limited capacity and resources. Teachers are paid a meagre salary as we all know, and even buying a personal device can be a challenge.  Trainees attending the teacher training colleges like the National Colleges of Education (NCOEs) and the Teacher Centres (TC), have poor access to the internet and devices. Most of the NCOEs were closed and used as Covid centres during the pandemic. NCOE and TC training curricula have no emphasis on digital learning. Teachers’ access to technology-related learning is very limited, so naturally students are the victims. Prioritisation of digital learning and equipping all teacher training centres with digital learning tools and required equipment is long overdue. It’s worth studying models used in teacher-training institutes in other countries with enlightened systems of education and learning from them. Prioritising an all-round system of education of students and teachers is what authorities should focus on, as we emerge from the pandemic, with sensible policymaking and budgeting and substantial allocations for education.