In Latin America we are still suffering from the consequences of the coronavirus pandemic (SARS-CoV-2). It is not something debatable, but concrete data. According to a new report from the World Bank, along with Unicef and UNESCO, many children on the continent who returned to school after the closures forced by Covid were between 1 and 1.8 years behind in the study.
According to these organizations, the educational crisis in the region “is unprecedented”, and if it is not acted upon quickly, an entire generation “will be less productive in the future and will have fewer opportunities for progress”, according to words spoken by Carlos Felipe Jaramillo, World Bank Vice President for Latin America and the Caribbean, during a virtual forum for educational recovery in early June.
His request was that governments make educational recovery urgent and ensure that all students return to the classroom.
In this sense, I like to think of the metaphorical figure of a “realistic optimism” to face any crisis. We know that we cannot change the facts: schools should have been closed due to force majeure and they were. This brought problems, yes, but that is something that has already happened. Now we have to look to the future and think that crises are also opportunities.
What we can do is take attitudes to face problems and do the best we can. In crises and in diversity, the capable appear. We must train and forge the new generations that are capable of creating, innovating and being resilient. What matters is what we do with what happens to us.
Education must firmly think about pedagogies that -in addition to skills and competencies related to communication, art, responsible citizenship, self-care, autonomous learning and development, creativity, critical thinking, resilience, etc- develop, above all, the skills to deal with unforeseen situations through foresight and prevention.
An avant-garde education must aim to form civically fit personalities in the exercise of their sovereign role. Even more important is to remember that the construction of the human being begins at home. The State and the School must accompany and merge into the same horizon, to train future generations.
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