With two days to go before the start of the school year, public schools have begun testing the platform for online education, which is going to be used by elementary school students in grades four and above, and by high school students. Initial results are bad, with the website set up to help students log on crashing most of the time.

Republika has received a note sent to teachers instructing them to keep testing the platform, which is based on the Microsoft Teams application. Teachers will be required to hold live online lectures in a matter of days, but many parents are reporting enormous frustration with the setup and difficulty accessing the platform.

On top of the technical issues is the problem of lack of basic IT equipment in many poor households. Some parents are reduced to literally begging for old computers on social networks. When pressed on the matter, Labour and Welfare Minister Jagoda Sahpaska told parents that they can buy computers at a slight discount during the second weekend of October.