Trolley school helps Philippine children keep studies on track

Student volunteers ride on their makeshift trolley which serves as a mobile library for children, in Tagkawayan, Philippines, on Feb 15, 2022. - Reuters

TAGKAWAYAN, Philippines (Reuters): A brightly decorated wooden trolley rumbles down a little-used rail track in the southern Philippines carrying four young teachers, two on the front and two in the back pushing it along with their feet.

Kitted out with a whiteboard, colourful charts, and a stack of books, the tiny, mobile school slides along from village to village three times a week, bringing education to impoverished children near the city of Tagkawayan as the Covid-19 pandemic keeps schools shut in much of the South-East Asian archipelago.