European Investment Bank (EIB)

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Since: 06.03.2019

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EIB: Saving youngsters’ dreams

25.01.2021 Share

In lockdowns for COVID-19 education can suffer. But Morocco and Tunisia moved fast to get students what they need to keep learning.

Life as a teenager is supposed to come with more independence. Losing this freedom during the lockdowns is hard to accept. “I felt lonely, anxious and sluggish,” says Wafa Harir, a student in digital engineering and artificial intelligence at the Euromed University of Fes in Morocco, when asked what it is like to stay at home with no classes and nowhere to go.

When the pandemic forced Moroccan schools to close in March, Euromed University worked hard to offer students online classes. But remote learning was not easy for many students like Harir, who lives in Boulmane, a small village about 100 kilometres south of Fes. “The connection was slow and unstable, sites were crashing,” she says. To make it worse, the mobile data required to join these online classes is expensive.

Harir and more than 400 other students at the university did not have their own laptop or reliable internet access. The university made a special request for assistance from the European Union, as the Bank had already financed its construction with the EU. The European Investment Bank and the EU Delegation in Morocco donated €500 000 from the European Commission to help students work from home.

Learn more here: https://www.eib.org/en/stories/covid-19-education

Article and photo source: https://www.eib.org/en/stories/covid-19-education