Education under COVID 19: a study on differently abled students

Abstract

Schools across Sri Lanka took immediate decisions to shut their doors and many schools and education centers have been following online methods for the whole education process to date. Students have never been more important but no one involved is taking part in the discussion about the differently abled students' education under COVID 19. The main objective of the study was identifying the difficulties faced by the differently abled students in online education. Sub objectives were understanding the perspectives of the teachers and supportive staff on online education, understanding the parents‘ perspective on online education and identifying strategies to overcome these difficulties in online education. The sample size was 12. Sample was taken under purposive sampling method and semi-structured interviews were conducted with educational supportive teaching staff of Rienzie Alagiyawanna School for the Deaf and Blind, Anuradhapura for the differently abled students (Number of 06) and parents of primary students (Age 06 – 12 with hearing difficulties) (Number of 06). Findings shows that majority of respondents have a lack of knowledge in online education technology (58.3%) and 100% of supportive staff mentioned that activities like lip reading cause many problems when it comes to online education. And majority (83.3%) of the sample mentioned that measuring their development and understanding the needs and changes in their physical and mental stability have been challenging. But in term of parents it was a good time to understand their children and support them (5 out of 6). This may causes exclusion and anomie. In concussion it was clear that fixed process of including and training parents and encouraging parents to volunteer is timely as a solution. Also a principle and authority intervention towards differently abled students has become essential to face upcoming calamities.