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Sri Lanka’s acceptance of long school closures bodes badly for its future

20 Mar 2022

By Stephen Lodziak Did you know that Sri Lanka had one of the longest Covid-19 school closures in the world? Really, it did. You can check for yourself on the UNESCO interactive school closure monitoring map (1). Seventy-one weeks in total. Interestingly, the USA also has an average of 71 weeks, making it by far the highest in the developed world. But 71 weeks for an average US child is not the same as 71 weeks for the average Sri Lankan child. Research by UNICEF shows that only 8% of teachers in Sri Lankan public primary schools reported contacting their students five days a week compared to 52% for private schools (2). And before we start blaming teachers, let’s think about why that may be the case. You shouldn’t have to think very hard. Why do teachers in public primary schools have such an abysmal record? Are they lazy, unionised rent-seekers? Maybe you think that. But think honestly about the lives of your compatriots who live ‘out-station’, their accommodation, their daily wage, their purchasing power. Negative effects of school closures LIRNEasia revealed in May 2020 that only 34% of Sri Lankan households that contain children (18 or below) had some type of internet connection at the start of 2019 (this includes connections via mobile phones, dongles, fiber connections, etc); 48% of households with children had either a smartphone or (working) computer (3). In simple terms this means that a significant majority of households with children were unable to connect their children to online learning. No wonder their teachers did such a bad job of contacting them: it was impossible for them to do so. Facts about the negative effects of school closures on children have been known since very early on in the pandemic. Among them: rise in drop-out rates, increased exposure to violence and exploitation, and social isolation. There have been no good outcomes for children. And yet, as recently as November 2021 children were being threatened with more school closures if people didn’t comply with directions issued by the Director General of Health of Services and the virus once again surged. This view was backed-up, staggeringly, by a paediatrician at a top Colombo children’s hospital (4). But we had to do it, you say. Covid-19 kills young and old indiscriminately. Other countries did it, you argue. Sri Lanka was simply following best Covid-19 prevention protocol from around the world. You are wrong on all counts. Covid-19 is a precision killer. It overwhelmingly effects people over the age of 70 with pre-existing medical conditions such as diabetes and heart disease. Healthy children are very unlikely to get seriously ill with it, let alone die from it. Why should we punish them to protect the old? Because we don’t want them spreading it to older generations in multi-generational households, you counter. Well, WHO has clear guidance on how to manage this and it doesn’t include closing schools (5). And with the comparatively successful roll out of the vaccine in Sri Lanka, this is now a moot point as the vaccine does an amazing job of preventing serious illness and death. As for it being international best practice, it is understandable why you might believe this given most countries did close schools for long periods. But in all those countries, children’s well-being was negatively impacted. Thankfully, we have examples of some countries that performed light or no school closures. We can see that not only did they better serve their children, but their Covid-19 outcomes were roughly in-line with or better than countries that did close their schools (and lockdown in general). In Asia, Japan, South Korea, and Singapore have inflicted the fewest school closures. The most famous case is probably Sweden, mostly vilified during the darkest days of the pandemic for not following the same draconian measures as everyone else. Sweden has come out the other side with better educated children, a healthier economy and better than average COVID-19 outcomes than most countries worldwide. Its much-maligned chief epidemiologist, Anders Tegnell, has now been offered a job with WHO to help them do better in the future (6). In Israel, long held up as the Covid-mandate innovator-in-chief, government epidemiological advisor Professor Cyrille Cohen is ‘extremely sorry’ for making the mistake of closing schools (7). This surely means that not only are we wrong to consider closing schools as a sensible or moral action in the future, but we should never have closed them in the first place. Damage done to pupils I read with interest Dr. Tara de Mel’s opinion on the ongoing Covid-19 related school disruptions in Sri Lanka (The Sunday Morning, 6 March). In a what should be hard-hitting interview, she listed the damage done to pupils due to school closures since March 2020. Most worryingly, students in countries like Sri Lanka have lost “about 25% of reading and maths competencies and essential skills, per age/grade”. Think about that statistic. The current cohort of children in the Sri Lankan education system is 25% below where they should be; 25% lower than an already low benchmark when compared to developed education systems; 25% less able than people who have already graduated from the system and 25% lower than those who will come after them. And how will that 25% be made up? Where will Sri Lankan children go to catch up on key reading and writing skills? Who will help them master basic but important mathematical concepts? Who will design the system to fix this 25% deficit? Who will deliver it? Who will pay for it? No-one. It is not going to happen. Sri Lanka has a historical precedence of school closures. Maybe that is why you, educated reader, are more comfortable than you should be with the status-quo. Huge swathes of adults now in their mid-to late thirties all the way up to their early fifties missed key elements of their own education due to the civil war. Somehow, they are surviving and maybe you see that as a positive. But it is not a positive. Surviving is not thriving. Better opportunities can only happen through un-interrupted school education, un-interrupted access to training institutions, examinations, and after school classes. Do better by your country’s children And this brings me to my reason for wanting to write this column. As a parent to two children schooling in Sri Lanka, I have been left dumfounded by the way this country has thrown them under the bus. And my kids are very fortunate compared to most of their peers. As I wrote earlier, Dr. Tara de Mel’s insights should be hard-hitting but sadly, in the court of Sri Lankan public opinion, they are not. They barely seem to make a ripple. So, this is an appeal to you, educated Sri Lankan, to do better by your country’s children. Do not so readily accept that the best place for them is at home at the first sight of an emergency. Fight harder to keep them in school and educated. Advocate for better training of teachers. Fund school development projects. Be happy to give over more of your earnings to taxes that support education. A country with a 25% education deficit is not one that will be able to dig itself out of economic, societal, or political holes. It is a country that will be forever dependent on the benevolence of others. (Stephen is a father to two kids schooling in Sri Lanka. He works as a vocational training consultant.)


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