South Australia’s online learning platform LearnLink buckled under the pressure of an influx of students and teachers attempting to use the system as term 2 got underway.
Many returning students and staff who were attempting to undertake schooling remotely yesterday were met with “ICT issues,” the ABC reports.
We are still learning from home this week, and it looks like learnlink has crashed. #covid19australia #southaustralia
— Kristy Schirmer (@Zockmelon) April 26, 2020
Both metropolitan and regional schools reported issues across the day, which the State Opposition claims was due to the system being overloaded.
However, the state’s education department has played down the issues, saying that it is “not uncommon for intermittent issues to be experienced.”
“Our IT service desk has not experienced an unusually high level of calls,” the Department for Education said in a statement.
Despite the availability of online learning, the SA government expects that most students will return to school in-person this week.
The state’s Chief Public Health Officer Dr Nicola Spurrier last week sent an open letter to parents urging them to send their kids to school this week.