Schools Teach by Text Message as Covid Widens Philippine Digital Divide
- Slow internet, lack of smartphones, leave poor families behind
- Teachers use free version of Facebook Messenger to communicate
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On March 10, when Philippine schools shut to slow the spread of Covid-19, April Garcia’s job was upended.
The 22 year-old had recently become a teacher at AHA! Learning Center, a private non-profit school in Makati City, the Philippines’ financial hub. Instead of explaining words and math problems to first graders in her classroom, she suddenly had to find a way to reach about 80 students over the internet -- in a country with meager bandwidth and poor families with few devices to connect.