Female children in SL have less digital access compared to male children

• We have achieved and maintained gender parity in access to education

BY Yohan Perera and Ajith Siriwardana  

Whilst highlighting that female children in Sri Lanka have less digital access compared to male children, the Women’s Caucus of Sri Lankan Parliament said.

“Every effort should be made to ensure that girls get equal access to digital devices, tech related skills and let’s renew our commitment to provide the best environment for development for female children,” Dr. Sudarshini Fernandopulle, Chairperson of Women Parliamentarians’ Caucus of the Ninth Parliament of Sri Lanka said in a statement.  
“A survey undertaken in 2018 reported that only 47.2 per cent of Sri Lanka’s population below the age of 25 years still do not have access to internet. This is a mere estimate, and it is likely that many more suffer exclusion in relation to our digitised world of learning,” she added.  

“We have achieved and maintained gender parity in access to education which is free for girls and boys alike up to the age of 16 years. Sri Lanka boasts a literacy rate of 91.7% with slightly lower rates nevertheless, recorded for women, as compared with men. However, given the impact of the pandemic and the paradigm shift to the model of learning from desk to digital, there is a fear that the gains made, and particularly gains for girls in the rural and plantation sectors will suffer a claw-back in educational symmetry. With the trending over-dependence on virtual learning and access to information, the increase in domestic violence, poverty on a downward spiral, it is very likely that the girl child has more to lose and excluded from mainstream education, smooth school to work transition and decent employment, compromising on the promise of substantive equality and non-discrimination,” he also said.