Food Security Sri Lanka Project #47695

Support education throughout COVID-19 in Sri Lanka

by Street Child

Project Report | May 20, 2022
Project update amid the economic crisis

By Akshara Vivekananthan | Project Leader

Dear Supporter,

Street Child wishes to thank you for your continuous generosity and kindness. Your unwavering support towards children’s learning initiatives in the North and East of Sri Lanka is much appreciated, especially in these difficult times.

Soon after tackling the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, Sri Lanka continues to experience a multitude of distress through the worst economic crisis in the country to date. With the country officially defaulting as of 18^th May 2022, Sri Lanka’s plight into rebuilding the country’s economy is one of uncertainty. With a political crisis currently in amend, the government is facing a high degree of pressure to navigate out of the country’s debt, along with a daily increase in inflation rates, fuel shortages and lack of basic supplies for citizens.

With a constant disruption to school activities, students have missed several days of formal schooling due to nation-wide imposed curfews. On days that school is open, some children are unable to attend because of the fuel scarcity, limiting modes of transport for students and teachers.

A focus on the current economic and political issues in country have deterred authorities away from COVID-19 safety considerations. The virus continues to spread across the country with a recorded 293 active hospital cases according to the Sri Lankan Health Promotion Bureau as of 20^th May 2022, with speculation that unrecorded numbers would exceed 5,000 active cases. The health ministry has issued a statement of caution in public areas and masks are still considered mandatory.

Nationwide school closures as a result of the country’s civil unrest as of 9^th May 2022 continue to threaten the long-term prospects of children in marginalised communities. With students on school holiday leave from 20^th May 2022, earlier than expected, students continue to face a concerning loss of learning.

This project was designed to overcome the challenges that may arise due to the uncertainty of COVID-19 in the country. It is now a vital survival kit for student’s as they face interrupted learning for almost 3 years now, subject to the country’s improvement of economic outcomes. The learning support package of interactive learning materials that were distributed to 874 children from remote, rural communities of North and East Sri Lanka through our local implementing partners have continued to support student’s English education through periods of inconsistent schooling.

105 teachers whom have received training for inclusive and interactive learning remain engaged with Street Child and Zonal Education Offices, as to how best we can utilise the skills learnt in these trainings during periods of school closure. With many teachers sharing positive feedback to continue learning about interactive teaching methods, Street Child hope to act on this enthusiasm in line with the needs of the schools and zones we work in.

Our home-based learning interventions will continue to play a vital role as students navigate their education through the uncertainty of Sri Lanka’s country condition. Street Child hope to continue expanding this program to reach more students and encourage a continuation of learning throughout the challenges faced amid the pandemic, economic crisis and beyond.

Street Child thank you for your ongoing support. We look forward to sharing further progress with you soon.

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Jan 22, 2022
Home Based Learning Project Report

By Akshara Vivekananthan | Project Leader

Dear Supporter,

We wish you are Happy New Year as we thank you for your ongoing support towards Street Child’s home-based learning initiative in the North and East of Sri Lanka.

Sri Lanka continues to navigate through the aftermath of the third wave of COVID-19 infections across the island, with the economic instability of the country impacting all avenues of society. Schools have now returned back to full capacity and students are reintegrating into the classroom. However, with further exacerbated learning outcomes, students are left vulnerable to the short and long term effects that the pandemic has caused.

As students endured prolonged lockdowns and school closures without social interaction or formal teaching, this programme has encouraged students to continue learning through play in the form of songs, dialogue and visual aids. The package of interactive learning support further performs as a linkage between two years of interrupted learning for over 874 children in remote and rural communities.

The 105 teachers trained in inclusive and interactive learning are using their skills at school to encourage a continued use of digital learning from the household to the classroom. Teachers regularly voice their appreciation towards the development of interactive learning at school. With ongoing requests for future skills training sessions and additional instalments of digital learning aids, such as interactive white boards in schools, the future of emerging education technology in schools is promising.

Our home-based learning intervention will continue to play a vital role as students successfully reintegrate back into school in the coming year. Street Child hope to continue expanding this program to reach more students and encourage a resilience to learning throughout the challenges faced amid and after the pandemic. Street Child thank you for your ongoing support. We look forward to sharing further progress with you soon.

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Aug 25, 2021
Project Update and Stories from the Field

By Akshara Vivekananthan | Project Leader

Dear Supporter,

We thank you for your generosity, kindness and support towards Street Child’s home-based learning initiative in the North and East of Sri Lanka. We are pleased to share an update on project progress with you, along with a few case studies from the field.

Sri Lanka remains vulnerable to the effects of COVID-19 with the country currently under a nationwide lockdown. Prolonged school closures continue to threaten the long-term prospects of the children in the most marginalised communities.

Our home-based learning intervention along with your loyal support will continue to play a vital role in the coming weeks and months, as students navigate their education and the uncertainties of the pandemic.

Street Child have continued to expand this programme to reach more students and encourage the continuation of learning amongst students. We thank you for your ongoing support and look forward to sharing further updates and progress of our reach with you soon.

Take a look into our student and teacher experiences from the field:

Case Study from a student: Learning is fun and interesting

I quickly learnt how to use this program in a systematic way that resulted to learn English happily. The key methodology is first listen, then listen and repeat and finally read along. This simple steps helped me to get the correct pronunciation, Listen and repeat helped me to read correctly and read along helped me to read without fear. As it is the school book recordings and supplementary videos, it was good for me to understand the subject.

During the Covid-19 pandemics, all the schools were closed in our country, that time Home based English learning which is really helped me to keep myself busy with study at home. As I preparing for the Grade 5 exam, I used to study English by using flash drives. Really I like this programme and I learnt to read with correct pronunciation and many new words, many action songs which are connected with our text book. In schools, we used to have short time for each subject and I rarely study English at home before as I have just text book which is boring, but now at home, I used to use flash drive for 1-2 hours every day as I have more time to learn.

This program is very easy to use and interesting to learn. Now I am confident in reading the text book without fear. I am lucky to have this flash drive. On the whole, got interest to learn English and got courage to read and speak.

Case Study from a primary English teacher: Gained confidence in teaching

The home based program is a good initiative and very useful for students and implemented on the right time to engage and create opportunities for the children to learn from homes and this program allows to continue their studies without any interruption though schools closed. As it is an offline program many students got opportunity to learn. In addition, we conducted online classes as well but only few were participated due to the lack of internet access and required devices.

When the schools resumed, I could see the improvement in the student’s English knowledge. The parents also reported that program was useful, interesting and easy to use and our children have learning resource at home to continue the learning.

It was my fortunate to participate in the English teacher training. The training was very useful, interactive and informative. I learnt a lot on teaching methodology and preparing teaching resources on Activity based Oral English (ABOE) which contributing me to improve my art of teaching and gained confidence to use the projector as a teaching aid through the practical training.

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