The Sri Lankan government has shut all schools for a week, saying the nation does not have enough fuel to send teachers and children to the classroom, local media reports say.
The country's Education Secretary, Nihal Ranasinghe, instructed the schools to conduct lessons online.
He also said that the schools at the divisional level will be allowed to run classes with fewer students so long as students, teachers and principals are not affected by transportation difficulties, the country's newspaper, The Daily Mirror, reported.
Ranasinghe also announced that the Public Utilities Commission of Sri Lanka (PUCSL) has agreed not to have power cuts between 8am and 1pm to enable online teaching on weekdays.
The department has also announced countrywide power cuts of up to three hours a day from Monday.
In June the country announced that schools would' shut down for a week thanks to the fuel crisis.
Energy Minister Kanchana Wijesekera on Sunday said the government has ordered new fuel stocks, and the first shipment carrying 40,000 metric tons of diesel is expected to arrive on Friday, whereas the first shipment carrying gasoline will come on 22 July.
Wijesekera also appealed to the country's two million expatriates to send money home through banks to finance new oil purchases.
The minister also revealed that several other fuel shipments were in the pipeline, but authorities are struggling to find $587Mln to pay for the fuel.
"Sri Lanka owed about $800Mln to seven fuel suppliers," he added. The remittance, which usually stood at $600Mln per month, had declined to $318Mln in June, a 53 percent of decline compared with June 2021.
The decline has been seen since last year when the government ordered the mandatory conversion of foreign currency, forcing people to pay extra money.
Many media reports suggest that since then, many people have resorted to the black market to send their cash rather than through official channel.
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