Tablets for JLSS Boarding Students from EMS Corona Relief

Although JLSS teachers were ready for online teaching having made the shift to Office 365, when Corona forced school-closures on 28 February 2020, we had to stop online teaching only months later. We immediately discovered that our boarding students had no access to technology at home. There was no way their parents or relatives could afford to buy them tablets or laptops, especially after the crash of the Lebanese Pound. Only a few affluent day-students could continue lessons online.
Our boarding students tried online lessons on their second-hand mobile phones, but they soon gave up.
Faced with this social injustice, we decided to stop online teaching altogether.
The academic year 2020/2021 started on Monday 19 October with Grade 9, BP2, DS2 and DS3 classes.
The decision of the Minister of Education was to divide classes into two groups in order to have social distancing in class with half the number of students taking lessons one week, while the other half takes lessons the following week. Students who are at home for the week will have to do online learning. This was going to be a big problem for our boarding students who had no access to technology.
With a kind grant from EMS Corona Relief, all JLSS boarding students received tablets for online learning, paying only a symbolic amount which is less than half the VAT due on each tablet.
Through this grant EMS Corona Relief enabled JLSS to correct the social injustice of our underprivileged boarding students, and provide them with access to technology at home. They now follow online lessons like other affluent students in Lebanon.
We express our most sincere gratitude to EMS for this wonderful grant that not only made our boarding students very happy enabling them to follow online lessons from home, but corrected the injustice of poverty giving all our boarding students the equal opportunities they deserve. Students were also able to download all their textbooks on these tablets free of charge from the website of the Ministry of Education. This was a great help to all parents.
Vielen Dank EMS!