Home schooling no easy task for Venezuela pupils

It's no simple task for parents with young children in technologically challenged Venezuela to help with homework, as schools remain closed under the coronavirus lockdown.

Officials have ordered teachers and students to hold classes remotely, but in a country where flipping on the light switch can be a luxury, this brings along plenty of challenges.

Alicia Aparicio, teacher and coordinator of 'Faith and Joy' school in an impoverished area of Caracas, said "someone is always left out, and well it is something that slips from our grasp".

"When we have one left out, we do not know what to do, and sometimes we feel uncomfortable because of that", she added.

She spoke as mask-wearing parents handed in their children's homework.

For students who can't get online, the school set up cardboard boxes marked by their class grades in the cafeteria, where parents drop off the homework.

Then, teachers correct it and put it in notebooks to be picked up along with another two-weeks' worth of homework.

One of those parents handing in homework, Yorbeth Castellanos, pointed to issues beyond technological difficulties, or lack of access to technology.

"It's really difficult for me to make them to focus at home", she said.

"As they are at home, they just want to play, to get distracted", she added.

Administrators at the Faith and Joy School in the Mayan neighbourhood of Caracas said they've connected to 90% of their students, sending home assignments through the apps like Facebook and WhatsApp.

Still, many parents say they have to borrow neighbours' phones to get their children's assignments.

Venezuela was among Latin America's first countries to go on lockdown, shortly after the first cases of the new coronavirus were discovered in mid-March.

Officials say they've so far detected fewer than 500 cases, and they attribute ten deaths to the virus.

Critics of the socialist government say that's an under-count and warn it could quickly spread.

Attempting to ward it off, President Nicolás Maduro has extended the quarantine to mid-June, and many residents fear it could go much longer.

Maduro cited concern over infected people crossing the border from neighbouring Brazil and Colombia.

While parents say they want their children to complete the school year even from home, not every family in Venezuela has access to the internet or smartphones as the nation grapples with a political and economic crisis.

An estimated 5 million Venezuelans have fled, and many of the 25 million staying behind go without reliable electricity and running water.

Gasoline is scarce despite Venezuela having the world's largest proven oil reserves.