(UTV | COLOMBO) – Distance learning/education is not an alternative for classroom education, said the Education Minister, Prof. G.L. Peiris.
However, the attitude change generated through distance education is crucial and the emergence of digital libraries along with distance learning is also important, he said.
He further said that, “in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic, the concept of distance education came to the forefront with the technology and it has been of utmost help in continuing students’ education”.
“Evidently, distance learning cannot replace the relationship between the class teacher and the student during classroom learning and their physical connection. However, the contemporary situation requires distance learning and we had to invest more time on developing distance learning aspects”.
“Therefore, the Digital Library which is introduced jointly by several institutions is also extremely vital in this background. It allows the students to refer books through the internet without visiting a library. Yet again, the physical connection with a book is not delivered through e-books”.
Furthermore, the Minister highlighted the interrelationship between reading and writing; 42000 booklets were written by Sri Lankan children and the Government is planning to publish 100 out of them and distribute prizes for those children. The government has launched this program to encourage children to engage in both reading and writing. He further stressed that relevant institutions have helped the Government to undertake the above task and the Education Ministry is giving the necessary support in this.
Chairman of the National Library, Sonala Gunawardana, The Asia Foundation’s country representative in Sri Lanka, Dinesha de Silva, Director-General of the National Library, W. Sunil, Director of Global Academic Research Institute, Sampath Abeywickrama were also present at this occasion.