The education system in Sri Lanka has undergone many difficulties during the last couple of years and this time country had to shut down the majority of its’ schools due to a fuel crisis. The children’s education met with its’ first blow in 2020 with the covid-19 pandemic situation. Since then education system in the country got continuously disturbed due to the second and third waves of the pandemic. Then the financial crisis struck Sri Lanka so badly diffusing almost all mechanisms in the country including the education system.
Even though the Indian credit line for petroleum was able to give some relief to Sri Lanka, things became worse as it runs out in June 2022. During the Indian credit line period, the average waiting time in a fuel queue was 3 to 4 hours and now it has gone up to 50 to 70 hours just to pump 5 to 10 liters of petrol.
Without enough fuel for both private and public vehicles, many children across the country found unable to attend school. Statistics show that only 20% of the transport services are active at the moment. This will also cause many unexpected situations for children such as food shortages and difficulty in accessing health care.
A recent assessment shows that 50% of Sri Lankan families were struggling to support their children’s education due to hyperinflation in the country. According to a trading economics assessment Sri Lanka’s annual inflation climbed to an all-time high of 39.1% in May of 2022. But according to the Prime Minister of Sri Lanka worst is yet to come. Economy-next reported that Sri Lanka’s fuel queue death toll rises to 12 and in a recent incident recorded a young man died after falling off a train due to crowding. Transport costs in the country increased by almost 300% due increase in fuel price by 200% and a rapid increase in vehicle spare parts.
Vinuji Senodya, 14, a student from Kandy, told Education Jagat,
“It has become a tough time to even for children like us. Most of the time my parents are in the fuel queue, sometimes they return home after 50 to 60 hours. Public transport has become so weak and if we want to get public transport we have to walk around 5 miles daily. On top of that, it is a risky journey in public buses because almost 150 people travel in a bus where the maximum capacity of the bus is just around 50 passengers. Even though we reach the school some of my friends were unable to reach school as well as some of our teachers. Moreover, affording school uniforms and stationaries has become a difficult task for the majority of students since their prices have risen by 2 to 3 times than they used to be in last year.”