MANILA, Philippines — The United States has donated P27 million ($489,000) worth of school supplies to the Bicol region as face-to-face classes resume after two years of distance learning due to the pandemic.

It is said to be the first batch of learning materials the Philippines will receive from the US for this school year.

The US Agency for International Development (USAID) gave over 540,000 “early grade reading materials” to the Department of Education in the Bicol Region under USAID’s Advancing Basic Education in the Philippines (ABC+) project.

The handover ceremony held August 22 was attended by officials from both agencies and representatives from the Sto. Domingo Central School and Salvacion Elementary School in Albay.

“We are working with DepEd so that children who are returning to school have access to age and context-appropriate learning resources,” USAID Philippines Education Director Dr. Thomas LeBlanc said.

USAID’s ABC+ project aims to distribute over 1.2 million early education reading materials across 7,000 public schools in Bicol, Western Visayas, and the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao within the next few months.

The project is eyeing to reach 1.2 million Filipino children. The ABC+ project value is estimated to total P63 million ($1.123 million).

The US will be donating picture books, storybooks, and leveled readers written in English and Filipino “to address gaps in the reading practices of young learners and help students in kindergarten through Grade 3 develop foundational reading skills.”