Dialog Axiata Group, Sri Lanka’s premier connectivity provider, in partnership Ministry of Education and Headstart Pvt Ltd deployed a suite of educational content and applications without any data charges for the benefit of children whose learning was impacted due to the early closure of the schools as a result of the COVID-19 outbreak. 

In its efforts of minimise the disruption to the education system due to early closure of schools resulting from the spread of coronavirus, Dialog together with its partners has extended free access to the e-learning platforms Guru.lk, and e-thaksalawa site, without any data charges, along with the Nenasa App to access Ministry of Education Learning Management System, to ensure continuity of learning for students, despite the prevailing situation. 

Guru.lk is the largest trilingual e-learning eco-system in Sri Lanka, with more than 500 courses under various categories, spanning from school education to professional education, entrepreneurial skills, lifestyle and more. Guru School covers approximately 60% of the Grade 5 to 12 school curriculum in both Sinhala and Tamil Medium. e-thaksalawa platform (www.e-thaksalawa.moe.gov.lk) is the national trilingual e-learning portal by the Ministry of Education, designed to cover the students’ curricula from grade 1 to 13. 

Access to the content and curricula of guru.lk and e-thaksalawa will continue to be available for free and without any data charges for over 15 million mobile customers and 600,000 Home Broadband customers, along with over 1.4 million homes using Dialog Television receiving unparalleled free access to Nenasa TV, Revision TV and Kids TV; all available for free until 20th April 2020. 

Additionally, users also have the option of using the Nenasa App, which is one of Sri Lanka’s largest e-learning platforms which contain examination papers and educational materials covering syllabuses from grade 1 to 13 and that of universities.

In addition to the aforementioned educational platforms, Dialog has also extended free access without any data charges to the Dialog ViU App for all of its mobile customers. Dialog ViU is Sri Lanka’s largest Video and Live TV Collection, and gives ready access to a range of edutainment channels including Discovery Channel, National Geographic and BBC Earth, along with Revision TV and Nenasa TV.

Hon. Dullas Alahapperuma, Minister of Education said, “What we are experiencing with the coronavirus outbreak is a completely unprecedented and unexpected series of events. We are grateful that Dialog stepped forward and answered our request last week to help us disseminate and enable easy access to our educational content digitally to facilitate the continuation of the education of children across the country, who have no other choice but to stay at home during this prevailing situation. We are pleased to offer not one, but multiple free educational platforms without any data charges for our students to continue with their studies.”

Hasitha Dela, Director/CEO Headstart Pvt Ltd said, “Our company’s main objective is providing access to education sans resource limitations based on location, ethnicity or social status. Today we are faced with a new challenge that further validates the importance of digital education. Students and teachers cannot go to schools. At this juncture we are happy to step up and provide online learning to all Sri Lankan children affected by this menace.”