Online teaching during pandemic period a complete failure: Teachers’ Service Union

Conducting online teaching during the Covid-19 pandemic is a complete failure as it leads to many social and economic issues, the Ceylon Teachers’ Service Union (CTSU) said.

CTSU General Secretary Mahinda Jayasinghe told Daily Mirror that most of the teachers and parents were not used to the current pieces of equipment.

“The mobile signal strength in most of the areas in the country is poor. Data bundles used to communicate are also very expensive and not sufficient,” he said.

“30 per cent of people in the Eastern Province, 50 per cent of the people in the Western province (WP), 20 to 40 per cent people in other provinces have access to the internet while the rest of the people will get no opportunity to adequately access the internet,” he said.

He said the best distance education platform is to conduct lessons on television channels until this pandemic situation comes to a controlled stage.

Also, the online education had exerted an extra pressure on students and they have become addicted to using mobile phones, computers too much, Mr Jayasinghe added. Chaturanga Samarawickrama)