Schools close across Sri Lanka amid the economic crisis

The streets of the capital of Sri Lanka have been filled with students protesting and calling for the President to resign. Protests erupted as the shortages of food, fuel and other necessities have started disrupting people's lives and education.

With the country running out of its fuel supply, more and more people in Sri Lanka are finding it hard to commute for their day-to-day necessities. As of last Saturday, the government has officially announced to shut down all the schools citing difficulty in commuting to schools.

While Sri Lanka Education Ministry Secretary Nihal Ranasinghe has asked schools to conduct online classes, many wonders if any type of education is possible with the frequent power cuts. In addition to schools, the government has also decided to close down public sector offices for the same reasons.

A country with over 2.2 million people constantly moving from one place to another is coming to a halt as people no longer travel to appointments or work, but rather wait in long lines for gasoline. Transit in Sri Lanka has become so difficult that even public transportation, which used to run nonstop, is also unable to operate due to a lack of fuel in the country.

Given the commuting conditions and food shortage in Sri Lanka, the government has no choice but to close schools or offices since the country is currently unable to meet those needs with the amount of fuel available.

While there have been claims of power outages being reduced to three hours per day, Sri Lankans are still waiting for the situation to improve so that they can resume their normal lives.  To make life a little more predictable for those affected by the economic crisis, the public utilities commission of Sri Lanka (PUSCL) has been posting the time of electricity disconnection.

With frequent power outages, it is difficult to predict when students will be able to resume their studies and the country will be able to return to normalcy.