As Liberia's school systems recover after Ebola outbreak, UNICEF distributes thousands of learning kits

The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) has begun distributing the first batches of 700,000 teaching and learning kits to thousands of schools across Liberia, where last year’s Ebola outbreak disrupted the education of over one million children.

The kits will help ensure the continuity of education and learning for students in Liberia, said UNICEF’s Christophe Boulierac to the press in Geneva today.

The 700,000 kits will be distributed to 4,460 schools in all counties and districts of Liberia.

As schools reopened last February after a six-month closure due to Ebola, UNICEF provided infection prevention and control kits to get kids back to school and is now providing those materials to assist students and teachers return to school, teach effectively, and learn effectively using basic resources.

The agency has been exclusively responsible for packing 700,000 kits, and working with Liberia’s Ministry of Education to distribute those materials to all of the identified schools across Liberia.

UNICEF plans to distribute the teaching and learning kits using trucks and four-wheel drive vehicles to ensure timely delivery of materials to schools before the height of the rainy season. The distribution process is expected to continue for the following four months.

Over 800,000 children had returned to school since the reopening in February.