The Education, Science and Technology Ministry has released a special circular regarding the use of ‘social communication tools’ for school education and communication yesterday (8).
The use of social communication tools such as WhatsApp, Viber and Telegram was introduced to cover the missed educational opportunities for school students due to the Covid-19 pandemic situation, and the school children still continue using those applications.
Information is currently being reported to the Education Ministry regarding the adverse effects caused by the continuation of using these social communication tools.
Accordingly, all teachers and related parties have been informed to follow the instructions listed below when using these social communication tools.
1. School Heads/Deputy Principals/ Assistant Principals/ Section Head Teachers should maintain the communication group at a quality level under the constant supervision and regulation by acting as the administrator (Admin) of the respective communication group such as WhatsApp.
2.The school time allocated for educational activities should be utilized to the maximum extent and the syllabus should be covered by making the learning teaching process live and the use of communication groups should be avoided to cover the syllabus.
3.If communication tools are used for educational purposes, special methods should be adopted to ensure that the learning and teaching process takes place in such a way that children who do not have comfortable technological equipment facilities are not inconvenienced.
4.Parents should be given enough time with a formal plan to inform the parents about the learning materials to be brought to school especially by the students in the primary section. It is appropriate to limit the use of communication inputs to reminder referrals only.
5.It is strongly emphasized that the exercises and assignments to be done by the students at home should be done only by explaining them during the school classroom learning and teaching process and the above communication tools should not be used for this purpose by making parents and other family members uncomfortable.
6.In general, during the use of such communication tools, messages, videos, photos, audios, announcements, etc., which in any way harm the privacy of the students and may put them under mental pressure, should not be forwarded and the Education Ministry will take strong disciplinary action in connection with such incidents.
7. In addition to communication input groups related to educational development and duties, communication input groups that are informally maintained by contacting the school community and teachers; the administrators (Admins) of the relevant groups must bear full responsibility for possible damage to the reputation of the school or to the school community and students.
Education, Science and Technology Ministry Secretary Thilaka Jayasundara informed that legal measures will be taken according to the common law and Information Communication Act in the country in case of problems arising in this regard.