Latin America
Filling the ‘Educational Gap’: How the Covid Crisis Exposed the Region’s Shortcomings in the Sector written by Ana Canto Mira Photo: Unicef, UNI328540, Volpe,2020.
T
here is no doubt that Covid-19 has dramatically impacted many sectors and regions across the globe. No matter how ‘developed’ a country is, this unprecedented health crisis has challenged the dynamics of what was considered normal and has proved that nothing we deem as such can be taken for granted. As with every crisis, it is always the poorest who suffer the brunt of the consequences, which is the case for Latin America’s most impoverished communities. The region, which was already struggling to abandon its label as a ‘developing’ country, is now facing several additional difficulties that span across different sectors. Besides the already vastly-covered financial and public health crisis, fields like education have been given less coverage despite their importance in the building of a resilient community. As the Covid-19 crisis brings more uncertainty than ever before, education can and should be a powerful tool in the hands of political elites to empower the younger generations and steer countries’ futures in the right direction. Although the pandemic has exacerbated the already existing challenges in the region - such as unemployment, inequality or political instability - this unique moment in history is a chance to redesign the education system at its very core by implementing long-term policies. However, this becomes a difficult task when 171 million children are out of school. At least one in three people in Latin America now live in poverty. The income gap between different groups in society results in what is known as the ‘educational gap.’ While Latin America has made several improvements in this sector, there are still some important factors that impede universal and equal access to education: poverty, quality of schools and educational policies themselves. The Harvard Review of Latin America explains that “in order to reduce poverty in Latin America, we must first understand the simultaneous processes of how education reproduces poverty and how education fosters opportunities to learn and of social mobility for the poor.” The pandemic has
undoubtedly widened this gap. New challenges in the educational sector have emerged, which, if ignored by governments, could cause irreversible repercussions. Failure to resolve these challenges and implement effective policies that adapt to the particular situation of the region could make it harder to fill the ‘educational gap’ and reduce poverty and social inequality. Before Covid-19, the educational experience was going through a quick process of digitalisation. This digital revolution has had its objectors and supporters. In addition to some preferring the ‘real experience’, others also argue that the prolonged exposure to screen lights could cause long-term damage to the eye-sight. Besides these debates revolving around personal or professional preferences, the reality for many families and communities has been that, during lockdown measures, digital learning tools have been the only means for children to keep on receiving an education. Even though the digital experience differs from one country to the next, there are some problems which can be found throughout the whole region. About half of all households in Latin America do not have access to the Internet. Among the ones that do, many do not own one computer per person in the family, meaning that households with more than one child are forced to share it for their online lessons and assignments, greatly limiting the potential that online educational experience has. Those most affected by the indefinite break from formal in-person education are more likely to drop out of school or to fall behind in the ‘new normal’. As outlined above, access to the Internet and electronic devices are now essential for distance learning, although some alternatives have been offered to certain communities. For example, Colombia’s strategy combines online and offline learning. For those who do have access to the internet, the government has launched a new learning platform called ‘aprender digital’ (digital learning). Educational programmes are be-
104
Dialogue • Autumn 2020
