No abstract

No abstract

Sri Lanka’s education system was suddenly shifted from classroom-based free education to online-based distance learning as an emergency teaching and learning method (ETLM) in response to the COVID-19 pandemic lockdown. This study examines how various stakeholders used online-based distant learning as an ETLM, and highlights the lessons learned from such a transition in Sri Lanka through a case study of the Kandy education zone (KEZ), in response to the country’s COVID-19 pandemic lockdown. We obtained the data through a questionnaire survey from 19 schools in KEZ, selecting the teachers, students, and parents as a survey sample. The findings revealed that nearly 64.7% of teachers used social media for the teaching–learning process (TLP), 27.9% used standard online teaching platforms, and only 7.4% used traditional teaching methods during the pandemic lockdown. Additionally, 36.5% of teachers and 41.2% of students favored the WhatsApp mobile application for the TLP, while others preferred other applications. However, during the COVID-19 lockdown, most of the less privileged schools in the peripheral areas of the KEZ adopted traditional teaching methods (TTM). The extent of the gap in ETLM adaptation and the driving factors that led to observable discrepancies between privileged and non-privileged schools, even in the urban settings of the KEZ, are also discussed in this study. These findings are significant in terms of educational policy making and management. Overall, this research contributes to understanding the ETLM adaptation of the KEZ by proposing policy directions that policymakers and other higher education authorities in the country should consider in an emergency.

Promotion of technical efficiency is an important policy goal for the entire agricultural sector. This study aims at delivering empirical evidence on the level of technical efficiency of Vegetable farmers by analysing farm level data covering approximately 450 vegetable farmers in Anuradhapura district in Sri Lanka. The study focuses only commercial level vegetable farmers who cultivate only different type of vegetable varieties in their farms. The empirical results indicate that more than 80 % of the sampled farmers were less than 55% technically efficient. It was also found that farming experience, household size, agricultural extension services and level of educational attainment reduces technical inefficiency, while farmers' age increases technical inefficiency. Policies that would improve farmer's educational status through adult education and agricultural extension services would increase technical efficiency of vegetable farms in the long term.

Among the environmental valuation methods, the Choice Experiment (CE) method is considered to be the most appropriate method for valuing benefits of attributes related to a particular environmental commodity. This is because of the CE method allows not only for estimation of the value of the environmental good as a whole, but also for the implicit values of its attributes. Under this method a sample of people is asked to choose their most preferred alternatives from a sequence of grouped options that relate to different management strategies. Each option is described in terms of its outcomes and a personal monetary cost to be borne personally by the respondent. In analysing the choices made by respondents, it is possible to infer the trade-off that people are willing to make between money and greater benefits of different attributes. This paper aims at explaining the basic steps of undertaking a choice experiment study which is increasingly becoming popular technique in both the developed as well as in developing countries. Researchers who are interested in applying CE method for their research can use this as a basic guidance for their work.