Several grade schools in Miaoli County have stayed open amid the COVID-19 pandemic. That’s despite an education ministry order to close schools until next Friday.
The schools in question are in rural areas in Miaoli County. Their students come from disadvantaged families. Some don’t get parental care at home. Others have trouble getting meals, not to mention internet service.
This is a grade school in Miaoli county. Each student is wearing a face mask and sitting 1.5 meters apart from one another. But the school is still in defiance of a government order to close until May 28. It has a good reason for doing so: in this impoverished area, some students risk going hungry at home, and a lack of internet access means online learning simply isn’t an option.
Miaoli county education official Yeh Hsin-huei says that if kids are unable to get proper care at home, schools are open for them.
For disadvantaged children living in rural areas, schools aren’t just a place of learning: they can be a lifeline.