• 2020 study shows less than 10% had privilege of actual online learning
• Only about 45% of students had some form of access to online education
• Majority of students left behind in migration to digital platforms
• Biggest blow for students from rural and impoverished areas
• Nearly half of Sri Lanka’s population not ‘digitally literate’

By Marianne David The pandemic did Sri Lanka a huge favour by exposing its massive digital divide, opening the eyes of many people to the gravity of the situation in terms of where the country stands in accessing digital learning, asserted Dr. Tara de Mel, in an interview with The Sunday Morning. “Access to information technology, affordability and literacy in IT and in using digital tools, and access to suitable devices are all sparse in Sri Lanka. A Government survey done in 2020 showed that only 22.2% of households owned a laptop/PC. Nearly 75% of students attending Government schools do not have home-based computers. Only about 35% of the entire population had access to the internet, with fixed internet subscribers amounting to only 1.67 million people. Even though 96% of homes had a mobile phone, these are used by parents, and it was with great difficulty that they shared the phone with children for education,” noted de Mel. She also highlighted that only about 10% of schools with GCE A/L classes offer science and maths teaching, and even fewer have IT and other tech-based subject teaching. “If Sri Lanka expects to leapfrog into an era where a digital revolution is to spearhead economic growth, large numbers of graduates and doctoral students specialising in AI and data science will be needed. State universities should lead from the front in providing opportunities for senior school students to enrol in these disciplines. In parallel, the Government of Sri Lanka (GoSL) should incentivise private higher education providers to cater to a similar demand. For this to happen school students should be very conversant in maths and IT,” asserted Dr. de Mel. Dr. De Mel is a Co-Chair of the Education Forum Sri Lanka and a member of the Worldwide Commission to Educate All Kids (post-pandemic), which was created at the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic. She was previously the Secretary – Ministry of Education and Vice Chairperson – National Education Commission.  Following are excerpts of the interview: Covid forced just about everything to go online, including education. Were Sri Lanka’s students left behind in this migration to digital platforms? How were they impacted? Sri Lanka’s students were particularly badly hit with the pandemic. Unlike peers from developed countries, there was no way they could seamlessly transition into online learning, face to face, using devices like laptops and PCs, and with high-speed internet. One study done in late 2020 showed that less than 10% of students had the privilege of actual online learning, and that those students were from urban, wealthy homes and those with good facilities.  In fact, only about 45% of students had even some form of access to internet-based education, and that too was mostly through notes in PDF shared by teachers using WhatsApp. Students from rural and impoverished areas were the worst hit, and we saw images of how they had to climb trees, rooftops, and mountains, and trek dangerous terrain, simply to find mobile ‘signal’. So the majority of Sri Lankan students were left behind in this migration to digital platforms. Where does Sri Lanka stand in this age of digital learning, where do we need to be and how can we get there? First of all we should understand that the pandemic did us a huge favour by exposing our massive digital divide. Indeed, it has opened the eyes of many people to the gravity of the situation, in terms of where Sri Lanka is, in accessing digital learning. Access to information technology, affordability and literacy in IT and in using digital tools, and access to suitable devices are all sparse in Sri Lanka. A Government survey done in 2020 (see table) showed that only 22.2% of households owned a laptop/PC. Nearly 75% of students attending Government schools do not have home-based computers. Only about 35% of the entire population had access to the internet, with fixed internet subscribers amounting to only 1.67 million people. Even though 96% of homes had a mobile phone, these are used by parents and it was with great difficulty that they shared the phone with children for education.  For decades Sri Lanka has had high rates in literacy and numeracy (on average 92%-97%), when compared to its South Asian colleagues. Literacy means the basic ability to read and write with understanding. For instance, if someone is able to read the sign of the bus depot displayed on a bus or write a postal address on an envelope, he or she is deemed to be literate. Similarly, the ability to simply count, add, and subtract numbers indicates numeracy. These achievements are due to universal access to free education from decades ago, thanks to C.W.W. Kannangara.  However, today the world is advancing at tremendous speed. We have completed 21 years of the 21st Century. More and more countries are using digital literacy as an important measure of education development and as a tool for economic advancement. Digital literacy is usually defined as the ability to use, with competence and on your own, a computer, laptop, tablet or a smart phone along with its applications, and to confidently use the internet.  The Census and Statistics Department survey of 2020 indicated that Sri Lanka’s digital literacy (after studying about 12,900 people, of 5-69 years), is 49.9%, and that 32.2% of that same population was computer literate. The latter is defined as the ability to use a PC on his/her own. This means that nearly half of Sri Lanka’s population is not ‘digitally literate’ and therefore unable to function in an information age and be effective participants in the ongoing information and digital revolution. A large majority of today’s school children, when they leave school, will work in new job-types that don’t exist today. These ‘future-jobs’ will need new and multiple skill-sets, based on digital learning and innovation, STEM-related disciplines, collaborative and social emotional learning, and tech-based subjects. Therefore, the students who are in school today will need a high level of preparation in such skills – all of which will need higher-order cognitive skills, like advanced critical thinking, ability for rigorous analysis, and mastery in problem-solving and innovative digital learning.  There will be a need for a radical and drastic shift, from the existing systems of direct instruction, passive learning, memorisation and regurgitation at exams, towards innovative and active learning systems where critical thinking skills, problem-solving and learning outcomes are tested. In order to accomplish all these, educators (i.e. teachers, teacher-trainers, teaching assistants and principals) have to become more competent than their students in digital learning, ICT and in the multiple skills mentioned. The Fourth Industrial Revolution has revolutionised technology, re-imagined education and has been the facilitator for economic growth in many countries. It has placed a high premium on ICT skills, digital learning, digital innovation, biotechnology/gene-technology, automation, robotics, and has popularised multiple uses of artificial intelligence.  How can Sri Lanka ensure access to and affordability of online learning? Let’s take a look at some recent statistics. In terms of ICT infrastructure (reference, Presidential Task Force Report on Education 2019), 5,700 schools (out of 10,170) have ICT labs and the majority are in the Western Province, and have a total of about 150,000 PCs. Less than 5% of all schools have digital panels with interactive smart boards, PCs, tablets or laptops and dedicated connectivity. About 35% of all schools have some form of internet connectivity but with poor speed and without data packages for everyone to use. About 2,500 schools don’t have any form of data (mobile signals) to connect with.  In terms of all-island internet connectivity, there are some regions without any form of internet access with just about 33% of effective penetration. Sri Lanka’s teacher-training centres (i.e., 19 National Colleges of Education and regional Teacher Centres) are hardly equipped with infrastructure and human resources to train teacher-trainees in these disciplines. And, teachers cannot afford to buy devices or to access mobile data packages with their meagre monthly income.  Therefore, as priority, the Government should equip large numbers of schools across the island with IT infrastructure (e.g. PCs, laptops, smart boards, digital panels) and enable internet connectivity either through fibre optic fixed line connections, satellites, multi-service towers, or affordable data packages. Sri Lanka should study what certain low-income countries in the world did during the pandemic. They proactively drew plans and proposals and invited UN agencies like the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) and International Telecommunication Union (ITU) as well other development partners to assist in expanding IT education and online learning.  As Artificial Intelligence (AI) increasingly takes over, what are the key skills our students will need and how should curricula change to keep up? Certain middle and low-income countries are thinking far ahead of us. They are launching major initiatives to enable school and university leavers to be ICT-skilled and skilled in digital innovations. They are preparing their younger generations to function effectively within new-age technologies of the 21st Century. They have made school and tertiary education systems focus on ICT-digital learning with heavy bias towards modern technology. They encourage and incentivise young people to study ICT and STEM-based disciplines, to enter the start-up ecosystem, to build and multiply unicorns (companies worth $ 1 billion), and to collaborate with global peers for sharing of ideas and best-practises.  The World Economic Forum (WEF) recently published a document on future jobs and future skills needed for the world of work, post pandemic. They emphasised that future jobs would be largely influenced and shaped by digital technologies and AI technologies. They describe how most of the ‘old jobs’ will be replaced by ‘new jobs’ and what competencies will be needed to face those challenges (See www.weforum.org/agenda/2021/06/defining-the-skills-citizens-will-need-in-the-future-world-of-work/). The necessity to include AI into school curricula and the importance of data literacy and data science, with a clear road-map towards integrating AI into all aspects of education, and consequently economic development, are common topics that are being discussed globally. Agencies like the World Bank (WB), WEF, and UNESCO are championing the importance of AI literacy and its relevance in fast-tracking a digital economy. We are already behind in this race, and unless we think fast and innovatively, we are not going to be able to catch up. What steps do the education authorities need to take to ensure Sri Lanka’s education system remains relevant? Let’s look at Sri Lanka’s situation in relation to school education: Basic necessities for the new-age curricula are STEM-based teaching, with emphasis on maths and IT. We all know that only about 10% of schools with GCE A/L classes offer science and maths teaching, and even fewer have IT and other tech-based subject teaching. Maths and IT are vital for introducing AI skill sets and AI curricula.  In the tertiary education sector: The University of Moratuwa recently started the first AI degree programme offering a BSc in AI. I think about 50 students have enrolled. Universities of Colombo and Peradeniya offer degrees in statistics which cover some fundamentals of AI, but I don’t think they offer degrees in AI or in data science. Similarly, Universities of Sri Jayewardenepura and Kelaniya also have statistics departments and they offer data science degrees. NSBM and SLIIT offer data science degrees but nothing in AI. Some private universities and higher education institutes have AI-related courses, but they don’t offer degree-awarding programmes like a BSc. The Sri Lanka Association on Artificial Intelligence should work in partnership with schools and universities; first, to de-mystify the use of AI skills and second, to popularise its use amongst students, explaining the relevance.  If Sri Lanka expects to leapfrog into an era where a digital revolution is to spearhead economic growth, large numbers of graduates and doctoral students specialising in AI and data science will be needed. State universities should lead from the front in providing opportunities for senior school students to enrol in these disciplines. In parallel GoSL should incentivise private higher education providers to cater to a similar demand. For this to happen school students should be very conversant in maths and IT.  Reasons for the lack of initiative in this regard could include misconceptions among students and parents about what AI really means, and misunderstandings on how AI skills can be taught in schools. In addition, lack of popularity of maths and almost ‘fears’ generated about mathematics, and that only about 10% of Government schools with A/L classes offer maths, science and tech subjects. Trainers/educators in AI skills, AI curricula, data science, and Internet of things (IoT) are essential for schools and tertiary education institutions, if they are to offer such courses or degrees. The paucity of such skilled personnel is another reason why Sri Lanka has such few AI-related disciplines available to students.  How can Sri Lanka best make up for the lost years of learning due to pandemic-related lockdowns? Pandemic education and academic recovery in students once they return to school are critical topics of conversation at globally-renowned education forums. In fact, academic recovery plans and plans for catch-up learning so that learning losses due to 20 months out of school are mitigated have been discussed since the middle of 2020. There’s ample evidence through research studies now in the public domain on how mitigation of learning losses is best done.  In 2020, when most countries had closed all schools with the onset of the pandemic, the school closure decision was based on the presumptions that contagion within schools was greater than within the community, that schools can be ‘super-spreaders,’ and that adults within schools are at greater risk of catching the virus. Today, after many research studies and credible evidence to the contrary, all renowned educationists globally are advocating that schools remain open, with necessary health safeguards in place, together with teacher-student vaccination. This is because the perils of long-term school closure in terms of learning loss is now evident.  It’s still not too late for the authorities to learn from best practises from peers overseas on learning-loss-mitigation and methods for implementation in schools. How can teachers’ grievances be best addressed? What are the immediate steps that need to be taken in this regard? Teachers are the backbone or the foundation stone of any education system. If the teacher population is educated with modern technology, empowered, incentivised and rewarded, needless to say the students will be taught well and the system becomes a worthy one. Teachers’ professional and academic advancement need to be rigorously focused on and well-funded. Their academic and professional achievements should be recognised. Salaries and allowances of teachers need radical revision and additional support such as suitable accommodation, transportation allowances, and other emoluments should be considered as priority.  If the authorities recognise teachers as a most valuable human resource in the national development agenda, I think much of the above will naturally fall into place. Households with internet and computer/device access (2020)

	Percentage or number
Internet connectivity	34.4%
Fixed internet subscribers	1.67 million (7.8/100 people)
Able to use a PC on his/her own (computer literate )	32%
Able to use a PC, laptop, tablet, smart phone on his/her own (digitally literate)	49.5%
Households owning at least one PC or laptop	22%
Computer literacy seen highest in GCE AL qualified and English proficient students	74%
Students with access to PCs, laptops, tablets or smartphones	<40%
Students with access to some form of internet-based education during school closure (via WhatsApp notes, text messages, online teaching)	~ 50%

Source: Department of Census and Statistics computer literacy recent survey, using a nationally distributed sample of 12,870 households (5–69 years) 2020, and LIRNEAsia study in 2020