The The level of disruption of the coronavirus pandemic in our lives has been of such magnitude that in practically all spheres, throughout the past year, the need to create new scenarios and action plans in the face of the unknown has been revealed to us. However, what has always been clear is that the education of children and young people cannot be neglected and that in 2021 they must return to face-to-face classes. The great challenge is how to get back.
In our country, the Ministry of Education is promoting the “Let’s keep learning” plan, which delivers a series of recommendations to schools for a safe return, and incorporates a positive criterion of flexibility and adaptation to the health reality and access to health services. an unequal country like ours. This entails autonomy and responsibility on the part of local authorities and the educational institutions themselves, which, in line with the established frameworks in health and education, can apply the best measures for each situation.
Notwithstanding the foregoing, there seems to be quite a consensus -at least in Chillan- regarding adopting a hybrid model, which combines face-to-face classes with online teaching, and therefore requires paying special attention to those who did not have any type of access to the internet last year, and they run the risk of increasing dropout statistics.
We cannot forget that those who live different family or personal realities, who require educational inclusion devices, according to their learning needs, were also affected by virtuality. In Chile, it is estimated that in 2020 one million students were not connected to the education system. Can you assure these students that now they will be connected and will not be excluded again from that virtual teaching component that the hybrid model promises?
With the emergence and expansion of the virtual modality together with the face-to-face components, the educational dynamics are broadened and made more complex. With this, the experts have said, the curricular design and the teaching and learning processes expand their articulations between face-to-face and virtual activities.
But it must be borne in mind that this greater diversity also differentiates the tasks of teachers, so that if we want the model to work, we must accept the existence of new more specialized activities, which must be carried out by people with more specific skills .
It is essential that this return to classes is accompanied by a double awareness: of the new pedagogical options and of the commitment of the whole society so that education does not leave the sphere of priorities again.
Efforts to invest in education, a joint commitment between school and family, the need for updating, professional development of those who work in the sector are essential and perhaps the first keys to consolidate a more innovative education that gives answers. to the changing and uncertain realities that the coronavirus brought us.
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