Sri Lanka schools to shut down amidst power shortage

Shafaq News/ In the midst of an unparalleled economic crisis, the Sri Lankan government declared on Saturday that all schools will be closed for the next week, according to local media.

The Sri Lankan Ministry of Education has announced that "all government and government-approved private schools in Colombo city limits, as well as schools in other main cities in the other provinces, will be closed during the next week due to prolonged power cuts," reported the media.

Sri Lanka Education Ministry Secretary Nihal Ranasinghe has asked schools to offer online classes and has stated that schools at the divisional level will be permitted to hold classes with fewer students if transportation issues do not impede students, teachers, or administrators.

He declared that the Public Utilities Commission of Sri Lanka (PUCSL) has committed not to have power outages between the hours of 8:00 a.m. and 1:00 p.m. on weekdays in order to support online education.

Sri Lanka, previously an upper-middle-income country, has been mired in an economic crisis that has lasted since the country won independence in 1948.

Political upheaval has erupted, resulting to President Gotabaya Rajapaksa's brother Mahinda Rajapaksa's resignation as Prime Minister and the nomination of Ranil Wickremesinghe as the country's Prime Minister in May.

In May, food inflation was 57.4 percent, and there are still severe shortages of vital food commodities, as well as fuel for cooking, transportation, and industry, as well as regular power outages.