Volunteer teachers in the Philippines have developed a fun and creative way to deliver education to disadvantaged kids unable to attend school due to the pandemic.
A brightly decorated wooden trolley rumbles down a little-used rail track in the southern Philippines carrying four young teachers — two on the front and two in the back — pushing it along with their feet.
Kitted out with a whiteboard, colourful charts, and a stack of books, the tiny, mobile school slides along from village to village three times a week, bringing education to impoverished children near the city of Tagkawayan as the COVID-19 pandemic keeps schools shut in much of the South-East Asian archipelago.
Tagkawayan is a town of about 54,000 people in Quezon province, about 176 kilometres south-east of Manila.Remote learners in the Philippines have been challenged by a lack of computers, phones and internet, along with uneven education quality.Pushing the trolley like a scooter, the volunteers teach maths and reading to more than 60 children as they go.They started their initiative in November and have collected donated learning materials to use for their classes.
While stopped, the teachers lift the trolley off the tracks, allowing the use of the whiteboard for spelling lessons, and then move on to counting using flashcards."Most of these volunteers come from poor backgrounds. They've also experienced hardships in life, which is why they want to help children in need," 26-year-old teacher Samboy de Leon Niala said.
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