COLOMBO – The education ministry is planning to reopen schools in August, and is working on the ‘first steps’ in this endeavour, with a COVID-19 vaccination program for school teachers.
Minister of Education, Prof G. L. Peiris, revealing plans to reopen schools in August, said the government will be able to restart school education in full, once the vaccination program for teachers is completed.
He acknowledged that though online education was needed at the moment given the realities of the pandemic, it is not a viable alternative to traditional learning.
“I don’t think for a moment that distance or online learning is a satisfactory substitute for classroom activity. It has its shortcomings. We cannot keep schools closed indefinitely,” he said.
Most schools in Sri Lanka have been closed for lengthy periods since March last year owing to the multiple outbreaks of the novel coronavirus, which has seen over 3,500 deaths and over 275,000 cases reported.
Responding to questions about the collective decision of 18 teachers’ unions to abstain from conducting online lessons as part of a protest campaign against the government’s decision to send protestors into forced quarantine, the minister said only a section of the teaching profession was on strike.
-ENCL