Venezuelan schoolkids struggle to join classes!

Thumbing his mobile phone, Jonathan Figueroa sits on his doorstep in a desperate daily quest for a Wifi signal to download his homework.

Battered by the pandemic and economic collapse, Venezuela’s lost generation of schoolchildren have little chance of linking up regularly with online classes given the country’s fickle internet coverage.

The 14-year-old doesn’t even have the luxury of virtual classes at his school in a poor district of Caracas, where the cost of computers is out of reach for most families.

Instead, what little interaction he has with teachers is limited to voice messages and assignments delivered on WhatsApp.

“It’s complicated. Sometimes I don’t understand anything at all,” said Jonathan.

In some ways, he is one of the lucky ones, because his mother’s employer gave him a used tablet.

But amid routine power blackouts and random internet availability, Jonathan feels overwhelmed and increasingly estranged from his school environment.

“Not only am I doing my homework badly, but I’m wasting time,” he said.

To make matters worse, Jonathan and his mother Viviana — who share a pokey rented room in a poor district — contracted the coronavirus in July.

Officially, some 85,000 cases of Covid-19 have been detected in Venezuela — a country of 30 million — with just over 700 deaths linked to the disease. Those figures are challenged by the opposition and some NGOs, who claim the real figure is much higher.

“We had Covid-19, and then God wanted us to get to know some people,” said

Viviana, recalling the solidarity of neighbors who brought them food and water as they recovered their strength.

The cost of a smartphone or tablet represents years of savings for families in a country where, according to a survey by leading universities, eight out of 10 people live in extreme poverty, AFP reports.

Photo/AFP