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Special Scholarships and Attractive Payment Plans Announced for 2020 May / June Intake Q and A with Dr Gishan Sumanasiri Executive Director / CEO of IMC-AIC Education Consortium
Quality higher education has become an urgent need for a country like Sri Lanka today.
Specially during the current COVID19 pandemic many countries have taken action to help safeguard the interest of students and learners.
Hence we wanted to know how Sri Lankan higher education industry is facing the challenge. Here are the highlights of the interview with Dr.Gishan Sumanasiri founder CEO of IMC-AIC Education Consortium sharing his views about the current status of affairs in Sri Lankan Private Higher Education and also about how Sri Lanka should prepare its graduates for their future employment and career opportunities.
Can you explain how the COVID19 pandemic has affected Sri Lankan nonstate university students and parents?
For a developing country like Sri Lanka we are handling the current situation pretty well. Most state and non- state education establishments have shifted their teaching to online platforms like Zoom, Microsoft Teams, Jitsi, and Skype.
In a crisis situation like this we need to fully understand the possible impact of COVID19 and new learning methods on students, teachers and families.
First, the economical and financial impact. The global economic impact of COVID19 coupled with limited local economic activity during the past few weeks has resulted in many industries and companies announcing retrenchment strategies which unfortunately has included layoffs and pay reductions.
This has a direct effect on the educational spending capacity of students since in a crisis situation like this normally other basic life priorities dominate the family spending pattern. Students in Sri Lankan private higher education institutes who are selffunding their studies and students who are studying in overseas universities with the financial support of their parents will be largely affected in this situation.
These students and families who have chosen self finance study options without depending on state education are also our own students and their education rights should be protected and safeguarded.
Second, the Psychological impact of the situation and its effect on students and families must be understood. Families now have to deal with the added responsibility of providing the “learning space and learning environment” at home which is not practically possible at times. Added to this is the increasing cost of data which is consumed by the online learning Applications.
According to a recent study 1 hour of online learning with Audio-Video conferencing consumes around 800 MB to 1.2 GB data. This is an incremental cost to many families and specially those with limited bandwidth or limited data capacity situations.
Third and finally the teaching methods - as we will see traditional classroom type of teaching or PowerPoint slide based lectures are not popular among the students in this new learning environment. There will be a demand for teachers and faculty to do more and engage their students in the learning process. Lecturers and teachers who use innovative engagement based methods will be more popular than others in this new learning environment.
How do you think we can help the students in a challenging environment like this?
Just like any other situation we must make correct decisions at individual and family levels when it comes to private higher education.
Situation like this gives several opportunities for Individuals to self- evaluate their employability levels and to see how ready they are for new jobs? Students and parents must pause their rush towards brand names and country names for a moment and reflect whether the students / learners are ready for the future career. A professional career guidance is required to make the best education investment out of the family budget.
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