Abstract:
ICT are highly dominating all aspects of Education sector in the world during the
Covid-19 pandemic which is not an exception for Sri Lanka. Plantations are one
of the most backward communities in Sri Lanka. In this backdrop, this study is
“Identify the status and challenges of the E-learning system in the Plantation
Sector during the Covid-19 epidemic”. This study adopts mixed approaches and
collected primary data using online questionnaire (google form) survey and zoom
interviews with students. Secondary data was collected from several resources.
The convenience sampling method used to select the 250 Students in plantation
and the data were analyzed through SPSS version-25. E-learning System, 90.2%
of them are using smartphones, 13% of them are using laptops, and 5.2% of them
do not have any device to participate in e-learning and 91.1% utilize the Zoom
app, 16.2% use Google Meet use for it. The average computer literacy rate is
11.12% and digital literacy is 19.64% for the last five years in the plantation.
Grade 5 students are learning 10.48 hours, and undergraduates are learning 14.67
hours per week. Educational levels have a substantial impact on the cost of online
learning. Grade 5 students are very lowly satisfied (mean value=2.65 and
SD=0.885) with e-learning, whereas postgraduate students are highly satisfied
(mean=3.86, SD=0.378) with the online system. Educational levels are
significantly correlated (0.205(P>0.05)) with knowledge improvements through
online learning. Primarily, students like e-learning due to Covid-19 (66.4%),
while they dislike its lack of network coverage (53.2%). 64.1% of those affected
by eyes that begin to burn and itch and 54.7% of those with headaches. The
setbacks in social and economic factors and the lack of ICT infrastructure are
affecting the e-learning system in the plantations. Therefore, effective policy and
institutional measures are vitally important to address these shortcomings and
move towards the sustainable development of the e-learning system in
plantations as well as Sri Lanka.
