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All schools on week’s holiday due to fuel crisis

04 Jul 2022

  • Education Ministry plans to cover lost school days during holiday season
By Buddhika Samaraweera The Ministry of Education has designated the week from today (4) to Friday (8) as a holiday week for all schools across the island, with plans to cover the number of school days lost by students during the upcoming holiday seasons. Speaking to The Morning, an official of the Ministry of Education stated that the Ministry has decided to designate the week from today to Friday as a holiday week for all schools islandwide. He said that the decision was taken after reviewing the attendance of teachers and students in the last two weeks and taking into account the fuel distribution situation in the country. He also said the Ministry of Education has planned to cover the number of school days students lose this week during the upcoming holiday seasons. Late last month, the Ministry of Education decided not to operate schools in Colombo and other main cities in the Western Province and those in other provinces, while the education officials including Zonal Directors of Education and Principals had been given permission to continue in-person teaching activities at schools, where the students, teachers, and principals had not been not affected by prevailing transportation issues. Meanwhile, noting that students have previously lost many school days due to the Covid-19 pandemic, Minister of Education Dr. Susil Premajayantha said at that time that steps would be taken to cover the school days lost by students due to the fuel crisis, by reducing the upcoming school vacations in August and December.  “Out of the 194 school days in 2020, schools in the Western Province (WP) were operated only for 94 days. The schools in other provinces were operated for 117 days. Given that, the students in the WP and the other provinces have lost 100 and 77 school days respectively. Also, out of the 229 days that schools were supposed to be held in 2021, schools in the WP were held only for 102 days while those in the other provinces were held only for 143 days. In 2021, students in the WP have lost 127 school days,” said Premajayantha. However, leading teachers' trade unions such as the Ceylon Teachers’ Service Union (CTSU) and Ceylon Teachers’ Union (CTU) have since claimed that online teaching has proven to be a complete failure due to a lack of technological resources and the economic hardships faced by both teachers and parents.


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