• Pandemic-hit education sector further affected by TU action 
• TUs vow to continue action until salary anomalies are resolved 
• Education Minister to submit cabinet paper on Monday to address issue 
• Concerned over grave consequences of long-term school closure: EFSL  

By Yoshitha Perera  The Covid-19 pandemic dealt a severe blow to the country's education system, with schools being unable to function properly for nearly 16 months.  Although there were some short-term phases of functioning, the students are still struggling to cope with their studies after the introduction of e-learning as a distance education model. The online education system spotlighted the inequalities, especially the lack of resources, faced by students in the school education sector that had even pushed some children to drop out of the system.  With the prevailing situation, it is questionable that interim solutions would work to overcome the matters in the education system.   With these situations, the relevant government authorities have to rethink on shifting for short-term solutions since there is a need for new policy reforms for the educational sector, according to many academics, authorities, and trade union activists.  However, discussions between the education trade union activists and Education Minister Prof. G.L. Peiris last Tuesday (20) also ended without an agreement being reached.   Accordingly, principals and the teachers have decided to boycott teaching online lessons further. A protest was also held in Colombo on Thursday (22) to draw further attention to the demands of the education sector trade unions.  Govt. response  After the massive protest conducted by the education trade unions in front of the Presidential Secretariat last Thursday (22), the President has said that he would meet teachers before 30 July to discuss their issues, including the salary anomaly. Speaking to The Sunday Morning, State Minister of Education Reforms, Open Universities, and Distance Learning Promotion Susil Premajayantha assured that the Education Ministry would submit a cabinet proposal on 26 July that would settle all the current matters in the education sector. He said: “We are hoping to settle all the matters within the next week and to work according to the proposed exam schedule. The President will also have discussions with the teachers’ unions next week.” The Education Minister had informed the trade union activists that the Ministry would forward a cabinet paper on Monday (26) to provide solutions for the salary anomalies for principals and teachers.    Another major demand is the vaccination of teachers and non-academic staff before schools reopen.    Last Monday (19), at a media briefing, Prof. Peiris had given a breakdown of the vaccination progress so far for the school teachers and non-academic staff. The data of the provincial vaccination programme as of last Monday for all academic and non-academic staff in schools are as follows:

Province	Percentage
Western Province	97%
Southern Province	83%
Uva Province	68%
North Western Province	58%
North Province	58%
North Central Province	56%
Sabaragamuwa Province	52%
Central Province	42%
Eastern Province	27%

 The Minister said that according to the data, 63% of teachers had received the vaccine.   “There are 290,018 academic and non-academic staff in schools and according to the data received by the Ministry last Monday, 182,969 have received the vaccine.”  While stating that a significant number of teachers have already been vaccinated, the Minister said that the Government is planning to reopen schools in August. He said that: “Although online education is needed at the moment, it is not a feasible solution for traditional learning. I don’t think that distance or online learning is an appropriate long-term method to conduct classroom activities and we cannot keep schools closed forever.”  Action until salary anomalies resolved  The teachers’ trade unions have decided to continue the strike action, as the discussions held with the Government ended without a solution being reached.  Speaking to The Sunday Morning, Ceylon Teachers’ Union (CTU) General Secretary Joseph Stalin said that although the Minister said that they would submit a cabinet paper tomorrow, teachers and principals are not satisfied with that decision.   He said: “We were informed of the decision last year as well, but the Education Ministry had failed to implement it.”  Stalin said that as a result of the Government’s failure to implement a proper decision for over 20 trade unions representing principals and teachers, the unions had decided to continue demonstrations and strikes further, until the Government can provide a practical decision for this matter.    Teachers in government-run schools withdrew from online teaching on 12 July due to several reasons.   They mainly highlighted the prevailing salary irregularities and the Government’s decision to forcefully quarantine several union leaders and activists using Covid-19 regulations.   With these demands, there are continuous lapses reported on handling online education in the country and the students have faced many struggles.    However, the trade unions have also stated that teachers will also boycott the practical examinations for key national exams.   Exams postponed further  The Education Ministry has also further postponed two main school-level exams – GCE Advanced Level (A/L) examination and the Grade 5 Scholarship exams, which were to be held in 2020, to November 2021.  Accordingly, Minister Prof. Peiris said that the A/L exams which are scheduled to be held in October 2021, will be held from 15 November to 10 December and the Grade 5 Scholarship examinations would be held on 14 November, after adhering to the health recommendations.  He said the release of the results of 622,000 students who sat for GCE Ordinary Level (O/L) examination in 2020 has been delayed, due to the incapability to conduct practical examinations in aesthetic subjects in a timely method.   The Minister said: “The practical examination for 169,000 students who sat for the aesthetic subjects are scheduled to be held from 28 August to 8 September and the results will be finalised soon after.”  The Minister also said at the briefing that the Ministry had planned to start pre-training activities for O/L aesthetic subject students and they will be called to the school for a period of one month starting from 26 July, while adhering to the health guidelines.   “The principals have already summoned the teachers in charge of the subjects and made arrangements to conduct the pre-training for these students. The written approval has been also obtained from the Director General of Health Services (DGHS) in this regard.”     Commenting on the acceptance of applications for admission of students for grade one for the year 2022, the Minister said that the date of accepting the applications has been also extended till 7 August. “The previous date was 31 July but due to the prevailing health situation in the country, there has to be a fair procedure for those fresh applicants as well.”   Failure to cover the syllabus  Meanwhile, in Parliament last week, Samagi Jana Balawegaya (SJB) and Opposition Leader Sajith Premadasa said that at present, there are many difficulties related to not covering the syllabus and setting dates for a main school-level examination.   He said in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic, the GCE A/Ls, the main requirement to enter government universities, have been postponed for several months.  The Opposition Leader raised several questions in Parliament related to the Government’s decision to set up the exam dates.     He asked the Government whether the A/L syllabus has been completed or not and whether the upcoming three months would be sufficient to cover it.  He also raised the question of whether the students who need pre-training for practical exams for A/Ls have received the particular training or not. He also asked how many term tests have been conducted for the students sitting for the A/L for the first time.  Premadasa further raised questions on the Government’s inability to conduct any programme to administer the Covid-19 vaccine to students and the assurance that the Government could cover the students who are sitting for exams this year.  Responding to these questions, State Minister of Education Reforms, Open Universities, and Distance Learning Promotion Susil Premajayantha said that the Government has set up a plan to re-open schools in stages, two weeks after the teachers are administered the second dose of the Covid-19 vaccine.  He said: “There will be no practical examinations for A/L students and only practical learning will take place. The Covid-19 vaccine will be administered for the school students only after the recommendations and guidelines from the health authorities.”   Current distant education modes  Explaining the current distance education modes conducted by the Government, Secretary of the Education Ministry Prof. Kapila Perera told The Sunday Morning that several measures have already been taken to minimise the lapses in the school education system.  He said that several programmes such as “Gurugedara”, “E-Thaksalawa”, and “Sathi Pasala” have been introduced as national and provincial-level distance education modes for the students who have access to the internet and that they could log in to these platforms free of charge.  Prof. Perera said: “E-Thaksalawa is an internet-based distance education mode which gives access to nearly 65,000 lessons, from grades 1-13. Gurugedara is a television-based system with over 6,000 lessons from grades 3-13 and it is telecast in both the Sinhala and Tamil languages.”  Before the reopening of schools, the Government had also decided to establish “Study Centres” to provide online facilities for students who did not have access to them. These centres would operate under the guidance of two teachers each. However, the trade union activists had decided not to work at those centres unless teachers are vaccinated.  Prof. Perera informed The Sunday Morning that the Ministry has identified 2,096 study centres with internet facilities to conduct the lessons.  “We have identified nearly 3,400 schools with 750,000 students who do not have access to the internet and initially, we had established 2,096 study centres. These centres have commenced across several rural areas in the country and operate from 7.30 a.m. to 3.30 p.m., with the maximum participation of 20 students per centre while following health guidelines.”      Prof. Perera further added that the Education Ministry’s vital plan is to promote self-learning methods in the country, as the current global trend is self-directed learning and the school students also have to practise these methods.  Concerns over education crisis  The Education Forum Sri Lanka (EFSL) has raised concerns and mentioned some grave consequences of long-term school closures in a letter to the President and relevant officials.   Sharing the letter with The Sunday Morning, EFSL Co-coordinator Dr. Sujatha Gamage said that due to an undue reliance on online education, more than half of the children are left out of contact with their schools.     She said that: “Setting up the dates for exams is not enough and the Ministry should have a proper plan to get students ready. Already 4.3 million students in the country have faced a serious situation since March 2020, when the pandemic appeared.”  Even after 16 months with the pandemic, Sri Lankan authorities have not made any progress on implementing long-term plans under the illusion that children are being educated online, she claimed.  Dr. Gamage said: “The Government's claim that only 12% of students do not have access the  to online education is not plausible according to our surveys and the information we receive from ground level. Indeed, there are reports that even students with online facilities are dropping out of distance education due to fatigue.”  The EFSL pointed out that even an excellent survey based on a school system with no shortage of resources in Europe had revealed that it is difficult to get meaningful learning from online education alone. Under these circumstances, the timing of and the content to be tested at national examinations must be carefully evaluated and a new examination policy should be announced. The EFSL shared some policy dialogues based on the information and their surveys with The Sunday Morning:  Provide necessary support equitably for first-time students facing the 2021 GCE A/L exam  The GCE A/L examination is the most critical of all national examinations. With the 2021 exam due soon, outside parties like us can't find answers to immediate problems that arise. We kindly request the Government to reconsider spending money on nameboards and new gates for designated national schools, or other non-urgent activities and focus on the urgencies at hand. For example, assess the support needed by the cohort of 200,000 sitting for GCE A/L for the first time in 2022, and allocate resources to address those immediately. Otherwise, it would be a gross violation of their fundamental right for equal opportunity in education.  Start planning for the 2022 A/L exam now  Noting that this epidemic is likely to persist, it should be a priority to focus on the readiness of the next batch of 200,000 students who will technically complete 13 years of education and face the exam in 2022. Some of the solutions may include ensuring that each student has a digital device for downloading and using content. Textbooks for A/L science subjects are already available for download. Textbooks for other major subjects should be prepared immediately. In addition, instead of chalk and talk lessons on television, the visual media should be used better for presentations on subject-related activities and demonstrations.  Abolish other examinations or reduce burden immediately   

•  Restrict the Grade Five Scholarship Examination to a test of general intelligence only 

  The stated purpose of the Grade Five Scholarship Examination (G5SE) is to select talented students and award scholarships. But in practice, that exam has distorted the recommended teaching-learning process for primary education, turning children into little parrots who memorise facts. This phenomenon that amounts to child abuse is exacerbated by the fact that children trapped at home during an epidemic are bombarded with facts through their parents' smartphones. When we asked teachers why they send WhatsApp notes to elementary children, say, on the subject of environment for which they should learn from observing and experiencing the environment, the teachers respond that remembering such facts is essential for children to successfully face the environment of the G5SE.   

• Cancel all exams for grades six through nine. Carry out only diagnostic tests at the school level

  In a detailed study of the syllabus content and learning outcomes recommended for grades six-nine, we found out that except for cumulative subjects such as the mother tongue and mathematics, expected learning outcomes for other subjects have been acquired and internalised through practice. Proposed education reforms recognise this fact and will have that 30% of the curriculum to be tested through national exams and the rest is to be learnt and assessed through activity-based modules. At this time, when education provided to children is anyway irregular and inconsistent, there is no reason why the examination burden should not be reduced immediately; teachers are to be directed to provide education through activities for all subjects.   

• Limit the GCE O/L examination to core subjects 

  As stated, from 2023, the proposed education reforms are expected to limit national-level exams to summative assessments of essential learning outcomes for core subjects only. Given the massive disruption in education due to the pandemic, the EFSL asks the Ministry of Education why this concept cannot be applied to national examinations in 2021 and 2022 using the existing curriculum.