Des Moines Refugee Students Struggle with Virtual Learning

Even before the pandemic hit, Boaz Nkingi spent countless hours helping refugee students in his after school program. Now, 12 hour days have become inevitable for him, in order to meet his community’s growing needs. As a Congolese refugee himself, Nkingi is familiar with the steep learning curves that come with adapting to a new country and a new education system. Add an unrelenting virus that has caused a large portion of the state’s schools to switch to 100 percent virtual learning, and it only makes the challenges greater. Des Moines Public Schools has spent almost entirely of its semester all online. A spokesperson for the district said 21 percent of its students are still learning English as their second language. Nkingi said missing the face-to-face interaction in the first year for new refugee students can be devastating.