Impact of Online Learning on Children and Parents from Economically Disadvantaged Families during the COVID-19 Pandemic in Sri Lanka (With Special Reference to Eladaluwa Grama Niladhari Division in Badulla District)

Online learning is one of the most widely utilized teaching and learning techniques in the world, but in developing nations like Sri Lanka, where even blended learning was not an option; its emergency adaptation to the traditional educational system has not proven to be a workable solution to the prolonged closure of schools during the COVID-19 pandemic. However, the immediate transition from traditional education to online learning in the Sri Lankan educational context has given rise to a number of issues at the macro level, and children and families from economically disadvantaged families are dealing with their worst experiences as a result of educational inequality that has resulted from online learning. The research problem of this research was how the impact of online learning on economically disadvantaged families and children is during the COVID-19 pandemic in Sri Lanka. The research objectives were to identify the impact of online learning on economically disadvantaged families, to identify the impact of online learning on children from economically disadvantaged, and to examine factors that influenced to arise of educational inequality in Sri Lanka. According to qualitative research methodology and phenomenological method, the semi-structured interview was used as the data-collecting technique of this research. The research sample was selected through the purposive sampling method and the data collected from 15 of the Samruddhi beneficiary families in the Eladaluwa Grama Niladhari division was analyzed using the thematic analysis method. Research reveals that online learning negatively affected both parents and children from economically disadvantaged families. Accordingly, having to provide devices, and internet facilities for their children’s education, becoming debtors, having to spend the most time on their children’s safety as children have to go to friend’s houses or other places where internet connections are available to attend online classes, and mental distress that developed due to spending high cost for online education or inability to provide facilities for their children to online learning are the major negative impacts on parents from economically disadvantaged families. And, children have to face negative impacts such as lack of educational participation, Lack of motivation for education, Collapse of education, or leaving school education. The positive impacts of online learning on children that were identified are exposure to technology and increasing social integration between low-class and middle-class children. However, the factors that influenced to increase in negative impacts on children and parents were geographical heterogeneity, economical marginalization, lack of education, Lack of technological knowledge, and lack of institutional support.