What will school be like when all students return to class? Former Latin American ministers ask that the “old normality” not be returned.
During the panel Reflections to build the future of education During the International Congress on Educational Innovation (CIIE) they added that education should not be seen as “an expense”, but rather “an investment.”
Otto Granados, who was head of the Ministry of Public Education (SEP) in Mexico in the previous administration, said:
“Let’s not think that – once the pandemic is reduced to acceptable levels – we will go back to what has been called ‘the new normal’, because If this new normal is as bad as the old normal, it means that we have not learned anything about how to do public policy in education nor of the balances, the lessons and the morals that the pandemic is going to leave us ”.
Rosalia Arteaga, a former Minister of Education in Ecuador supported the idea. He affirmed that one should not try to return to normality …you have to create a better normality.
“That is the only thing that can give us a true solution,” he explained.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VmuylB1FNRM
Great disparities
Arteaga explained that if the Covid-19 crisis taught us anything, it is that priority should be given to health and public education.
“In the countries there are more cell phones than people, but what cell phone? Is not a smartphone, it is not something friendly to connect. Sometimes, in big cities, the internet goes away, imagine in rural areas. The boys hanging from the top of a tree to try to catch a signal or walking for hours and hours. The teacher carrying the blackboard on a bicycle. So the number one lesson from the pandemic is to strengthen public health and education, just in the spirit of equity. “
He said that the people who have more resources send their children to private school, but what about the majority of the population who do not have the resources?
“The pandemic has brought us problems of economic character, we have to be attentive to the migration of many students whose parents had to pay for private education and now do not have it, “he said.
Children who could read and forgot
For its part, Claudia Costin, former Secretary of Education of Rio de Janeiro said that, although there may be a “small” risk from returning to school, the setback due to lack of education is much more serious.
“In Brazil there is profound educational inequality. The country is not only unequal from a social point of view; This social inequality translates into educational inequality. In the last PISA test, Brazil was considered the second most unequal territory from an educational point of view ”, he warned.
In addition, he said that many children who already had reading skills have forgotten them.
“With the pandemic, what has happened? A deepening of inequalities, many municipalities have an average of only two years of schooling. Many do not have connectivity… learning was not easy. In Brazil, most states have already returned to classes full time, but initial evaluations show absurd educational losses. 10 or 11 year old children who cannot read and write. They already knew, before the pandemic. For whatever reason, they lost that learning, ”he said.
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