Almost two years after the start of the pandemic and after countless disruptive events around the world, evaluating the results of some drastic changes in our lifestyle can be useful for the future.
Without a doubt, one of the most drastic and painful social changes has been the closure of schools all over the planet and the abandonment of hundreds of thousands of children and young people with limited resources by the educational system. Despite great and important efforts by the public sector, non-governmental organizations and private institutions, the sad reality is that in most cases, online education has not successfully replaced classroom education.
NGOs such as UNICEF and WHO have eloquently advocated the importance of reopening schools and have proposed preventive measures to avoid massive contagion in schools. However, the reality is that, in several cities and municipalities, public and private schools continue to be closed or have poor educational programs. It is estimated that children of all levels have lost at least 1,000 hours of learning since the start of the pandemic. In addition to that, the emotional and psychological damage to millions of children has been enormous regardless of sex, age, school grade or socioeconomic level. The fear is that many of these children will definitely drop out of school and the number of children without access to education will grow substantially in the coming years.
In this regard, La Jornada published some data that give us an idea of the educational lag that students in Mexico are experiencing. From March 20, 2020 to January 13, 2022, the Learn at Home distance education strategy has registered 16.6 million users out of a total of 25 million basic education students. Which would mean that only 66.4% of students have had access to these platforms. Of these, according to data from the SEP, 63% connected with mobile devices, 32% did so via computer (5.4 million) and 5% with electronic tablets (733 thousand). Another big alert is that visits to the portal only average 7.17 minutes in duration, the agency specified. This time seems very short to be able to keep up with the necessary educational program.
On the other hand, the agency also reported that in the current school year, the official Learn at Home SEP YouTube channel registers 5.1 million visits and 12,200 new subscribers. Meanwhile, on television, HR Ratings and the Public Broadcasting System of the Mexican State (SPR) reported a total audience, in the current cycle, of 494.2 million viewers, and an average weekly reach of 30.8 million viewers.
The weekly audience for “Aprende en Casa” reached 125.3 million viewers on Canal Once; 119.8 million on TV UNAM, and 248.9 million on Ingenio TV.