Digital learning should be safe and fair for all students: Minister

Colombo, January 15 (Daily Mirror) - Prime Minister and Minister of Education Dr. Harini Amarasuriya said it is important to reduce the gap in digital facilities between schools and to make sure that technology in education is safe for children.

She expressed these views while speaking at the official launch of the Education Digitalization Program at the Education Ministry yesterday (14). The program is being carried out with the support of a Chinese government grant.

The Minister said that improving digital facilities in schools is a main part of the government’s education reforms. She explained that schools without proper technology must be identified and given support so that all students can have equal access to modern learning resources.

“Schools with digital inequality should be identified and digitized to allow every student to enjoy equal educational facilities,” Dr. Amarasuriya said.

She also stressed that technology must be introduced to education in a careful and responsible way.

“When technology is added to education, those methods should be planned in a way that suits the child’s mind and protects child safety,” the Minister added.

The Education Digitalization Program aims to create an organized and secure digital learning system, instead of only providing electronic devices to schools.

The project includes setting up a national cloud data center for education, developing distance learning methods, and establishing nearly 900 smart classrooms with artificial intelligence-based features.

Deputy Ministers Dr. Madura Seneviratne and Engineer Eranga Weeraratne, officials from the Chinese Embassy, and senior officials from related ministries also took part in the launch event.