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For the past two months, more than 3.6 million schoolchildren have remained in their homes, after classes in schools were suddenly suspended on March 16, as a preventive measure against the coronavirus.
At this time, the students they’ve already spent their two weeks of winter break, which were brought forward for the second half of April, in addition to taking a month and a half (or 31 school days, until this Wednesday) without face-to-face activities. That equals all the school time that was lost on average in 2019, due to the unemployment of the Teachers College and the social outbreak.
To compensate for this situation, the Mineduc and the establishments are working with innumerable platforms, applications and distance learning systems. But the reality is dissimilar, because most schools cannot take classes online, and this does not have the same effect as a classroom activity.
“What can be done with distance education is important, but in no case does the school take the home or supply the value of the face-to-face classes ”, this week told Mega the Minister of Education, Raúl Figueroa.
How many more classes can you miss? Sylvia Eyzaguirre, researcher at the Public Study Center (CEP), He says that the most dramatic thing is not to lose a month and a half, but rather to not know when the schoolchildren will return to the classrooms, considering that infections and quarantined communities continue to increase.
“We don’t know how long we will have these dynamic quarantines and we are likely to miss more classes than the month and a half we have been in. How will we deal with this? I don’t know… we will have to be creative ”, ponder.
The expert explains that we will probably have to live with the Covid-19 for a couple of years, so It will be vital “that all children have access to connectivity, that classes are done online, but there the cultural capital of the families influences a lot. There will be gaps and then we will have to make a diagnosis. ”
A similar opinion has the former minister and researcher of the Center for Public Policy of the U. Diego Portales, José Joaquín Brunner, for who at this time of year is “Of all evidence that this is a crisis of greater proportions, that will affect the entire educational system ”.
“The formal school year, as scheduled in March, has already been lost. The original school calendar, its goals and its measurement in the Simce, that is over. But the possibility of maintaining educational continuity has not been lost, which is what all countries are doing, because 2020 and 2021 will be extraordinary years, “he says.
To address this situation, Brunner says that the Mineduc must advance as if it were “in a war”, that is to say, planning campaigns week by week to support schools, imparting essential learning, looking for a solution for 4th grade youth and trying to close knowledge gaps.
Faced with this reality, Alejandra Arratia, Director of Education 2020, He says that the assumption that children will return to normal should be abandoned quickly. “The important thing is to give peace of mind to schools and students, and assume that we will have a kind of double year (2020 and 2021) to impart the learning ”.
What worries you the most, is the situation of the young people of 4th grade, because they are closing their school year and face the pressure to enter higher education, and will be the first to take the Transition Tests, which will replace the PSU, and which still do not have a date.
“They must be given special support, and the syllabi of the tests have to talk with the Mineduc’s curricular adjustments. If children in 1st grade do not learn to read now, they can learn in 2nd grade. But for the 4th media, this is the most complex year ”, He says.
For him academic of the Institute of Educational Research and Development of the University of Talca, Sebastián Donoso, This crisis is a good opportunity to rethink the functioning of the school system.
“We could ask ourselves if it is worth having annual courses or if it is better if they are semester. Perhaps this year you can pass a semester and in 2021 do two and a half semesters… you have to think about flexibility, ”he exemplifies.
Further, Donoso would discard the Simce application, which was announced by the Mineduc, because “it is not useful for this recovery, it is better to give the necessary flexibility so that the teachers begin to recover the contents”. And agrees that This will not be a totally wasted year, because schoolchildren are developing some level of autonomy.
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