Sri Lanka, Suffering Daily Power Outages, Tries Switching to Virtual School

Sri Lanka Education Minister Susil Premajayantha on Sunday encouraged public schools nationwide to switch to online learning due to worsening fuel shortages that have left many Sri Lankans unable to transport their children to schools, Sri Lanka’s Ada Derana news website reported.

“The minister requested all teachers and principals to implement the online education system for the students of the schools that will be closed,” Ada Derana reported on June 19, referring to Premajayantha.

The Sri Lankan education minister announced on Sunday that a select number of public schools within the national capital, Colombo, and other major cities nationwide would shut down from at least June 20 to June 24 due to the country’s fuel shortages.

Sri Lanka’s Education Ministry gave provincial education officials “permission to continue in-person lessons at schools, where the students, teachers, and principals are not affected by transportation issues,” Ada Derana noted on Sunday.

Fuel shortages have caused rolling blackouts across Sri Lanka in recent months. The situation casts doubt on students’ ability to participate in online classes, which require steady access to electricity.

The Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka, located off the coast of southern India, has endured a crippling economic crisis since early March. After running out of foreign currency reserves used to purchase vital imported goods, Sri Lanka began to experience severe shortages of fuel, food, and medicine this year. Sri Lankans have regularly waited in long lines for state-rationed allowances of gasoline and cooking fuel over the past three months. At least ten people have died while waiting in these lines, often due to heat stroke, with at least one person reportedly “murdered” during a dispute with other desperate queuers in late March.

Sri Lanka Army soldiers opened fire on crowds surrounding gasoline filling stations on two separate occasions over the weekend. The first incident occurred on June 18 in northern Sri Lanka’s Mullaitivu town after police officers tried to arrest a man for “obstructing” the army’s management of a fuel line.

“Subsequently, a group of people who had gathered near the Army checkpoint demanding the release of the suspect had obstructed the duties of Army officers and assaulted them with glass bottles,” Sri Lanka’s News First website reported on June 19. “After this, additional troops were deployed at the location to bring the situation under control, and they have fired gunshots into the air. Seven people, including three army personnel were injured in the incident, Police stated.”

The second incident took place on June 19 in the southeastern Sri Lankan city of Kalutara.

“The military fired warning shots to douse a tense situation at a filling station in the Meegahathenna area in Kalutara yesterday, the police said,” Sri Lanka’s Daily Mirror newspaper reported. “Tension erupted after a person tried to break a petrol line. The military personnel on duty opened fire into the air to disperse the crowd.”