Image: The teachers and about 45 schoolchildren in Bohitiwaya then climb more than 3 kilometers (2 miles) to the top of a rock to find an internet signal. Image Credit: AP
(13 Jul 2021/ Al Jazeera) Getting online school lessons for this remote Sri Lankan village requires a trek of more than three kilometres (about two miles) in dense bushes, sometimes visited by leopards and elephants.
Teachers and schoolchildren trek for miles and climb a rock to access the only internet signal available in their remote village.
Information technology teacher Nimali Anuruddhika uses the signal to upload lessons for her students who have not been able to go to school because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
The students who also live in the village make the same journey to download online lessons sent to them by their teachers.
Not all have mobiles or laptops, with four or five children sharing one device.
Their parents, most of whom are farmers, often accompany their children. HM Pathmini Kumari, who accompanies his sixth-grade son, says the children climb the rock twice a day and their safety is a big concern for parents.
A Sri Lankan woman holds a smartphone for her daughter to take online classes from a signal reception point on a mountain in a reserve forest in Lunugala. [Eranga Jayawardena/AP Photo]
The village in the central-eastern part of the island country lacks basic amenities, and its children had been studying in a government school, now closed, that is some 16km (10 miles) away.
The village in the central-eastern part of the island country lacks basic amenities, and its children had been studying in a government school, now closed, that is about 16 kilometers (10 miles) away. Image Credit: AP
In the village of Lunugala, some 60km (37 miles) away, adults escort schoolchildren to a mountaintop treehouse in a forest reserve. It is about 30 feet high and has internet access. They take turns to upload their homework and download lesson plans.
A Sri Lankan student attends her online classes from a tree house. Schools on the island have been closed for the most part since March 2020. [Eranga Jayawardena/AP Photo]Schools in Sri Lanka have been closed for the most part since March 2020.Authorities say they make every effort to provide all children with access to education, but Joseph Stalin, who heads the Ceylon Teachers’ Union, says at most 40 percent of Sri Lanka’s 4.3 million students can participate in online classes. The majority lack access to devices or connectivity.Sri Lanka’s government on Monday began a campaign to vaccinate all teachers with a view to reopen schools soon.
The digital divide fuelled by uneven internet access and high data costs has forced many students out of the formal education system in Sri Lanka. [Eranga Jayawardena/AP Photo]Sri Lankan students walk down from a nearby mountain after attending their online classes in Bohitiyawa village in Meegahakiwula. [Eranga Jayawardena/AP Photo]
Sri Lanka’s government on Monday began a campaign to vaccinate all teachers with a view to reopen schools soon.
