Colombo (TIP): With no fuel for transportation, Sri Lanka on Sunday declared a week-long holiday for schools from July 5. The Education Ministry decided that all government and government-approved private schools would be given holidays from July 4 to 8. The decision was reached after a discussion among ministry officials, provincial education secretaries, and other officials, and after considering the poor attendance of principals, teachers and students over the last two weeks, mainly due to lack of transport with non-availability of fuel for public transport and personal vehicles. Sending home people who were queued up for days and weeks on last Monday, the government-run Ceylon Petroleum Corporation stopped issuing fuel to vehicles other than those involved in essential services such as health, public transportation, law and order and food distribution among others.

People were asked to work from home and urban schools were closed while others requested to teach online. All private vehicles had to depend on Indian Oil Company-run fuel stations around the country, which issued limited fuel to different vehicles. — IANS