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COVID-19 and the gamble on homeschooling: Will it work for all?

May 7, 2020 por Sabine Rieble - Adriana Viteri - Madiery Vásquez - Elena Arias Ortiz Leave a Comment


No classes, no teachers, no friends, no games, and no daily routine that children are used to. Now all the days seem the same.  The health crisis has significantly changed our day to day. This has been a radical change for all students of Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC), not only being inside all day long but trying to learn from somewhere other than school.

Across the LAC region, primary education coverage is nearly universal which means that almost all children between 6 and 12-years old attend school regularly. In preschool and secondary school, although coverage is lower, 8 out of 10 children and youth attend school (see CIMA). Today, the pandemic has generated a disruption in education systems: almost all schools in LAC are closed.  More than 165 million students at all education levels are at home[i]. Therefore, they must learn from home: with the tools they have at hand, the support of their parents, and limited help from their teachers.

We still do not know when students will return to face-to-face classes. Confronted with this uncertainty, the Ministries of Education in LAC have invested efforts to: inform the education community about the health crisis, provide social assistance, distribute resources, and offer distance learning alternatives.

The main challenge facing countries under these circumstances is to reach the largest number of students possible with pedagogical content.  The gamble is on finding ways to continue teaching and learning processes from home that serve all students.

Aprendizaje desde casa

In LAC countries, different modes of education have been combined as an immediate response to deliver content to students, including digital platforms, television, radio, and printed material.

How much can we hope that these strategies will guarantee learning during and after the emergency? The data tells us that the solutions will not work equally for all countries and all students.

When considering digital platforms, which are tools that allow interaction and monitoring of learning in real-time, two aspects emerge. One is that the development and successful implementation of any digital solution is a process that requires great effort. Even before the emergency, many LAC countries did not have the basic digital conditions to provide online education (see CIMA Brief), and that has become a greater challenge now that Ministries of Education are not operating at their regular capacity. The second aspect is that these tools rarely reach the most vulnerable populations.  Studies in primary and secondary education have shown little incorporation of digital tools in the teaching and learning processes.

Moreover, there is inequality in access to technology, connectivity, and digital resources, whereby the majority of the students in the region do not have the basic technological conditions for online learning from home (see CIMA Brief). For example, in Latin America, less than 30% of the most vulnerable households have access to a computer in the home for schoolwork. Also, the internet is one of the requirements for online learning solutions, but very few countries in the region have widespread access.

As for LAC’s teachers, their familiarity with digital resources has been historically low (TALIS). Less than 60% of secondary school teachers have the technical and pedagogical abilities to integrate digital devices into instruction (see CIMA Brief). Schools in more vulnerable contexts have teachers less prepared to integrate digital devices into instruction (55%), compared with 68% of schools with more privileged environments.

Socioeconomic gaps also influence the support that parents can offer in encouraging their children’s learning at home. Parents play a key role. In most countries, parents who come from more privileged backgrounds (with higher socioeconomic status) are more involved with student learning and progress (see CIMA Brief). The added conditions of economic, social and emotional instability that families face during the emergency can influence the support parents are able to offer their children at home.

Education in the LAC region has been characterized by unequal access and by low and unequal learning results (see PISA Brief).  The gaps were already very wide even before COVID-19.  In Latin America, the differences in learning between students from vulnerable and privileged contexts are equivalent to more than two years of schooling (363 vs. 464 points in reading, PISA-2018) (see CIMA)[ii]. The role of the school in equalizing learning opportunities has been interrupted. Thus, the efforts of Ministries of Education to prevent the gaps from widening much more during and after the health emergency are very important. The analog (television and radio) and print media have reached the most vulnerable. However, the role of teachers and parents is now more important than ever in the accompaniment and monitoring of students, especially those who need it most.

While schools have reopened in Uruguay with the gradual incorporation of students in low-risk rural areas, the date seems uncertain for the rest of the LAC countries. Countries approaching the end of their school year[iii] are considering ending the school year early.  Those that had just started the school year[iv] still do not have an estimated reopening date. Everything indicates that countries should plan to continue distance education models during 2020.  It is not yet known when it will be safe to reduce social distancing and open schools safely.  Thus, it is imperative that these distance education resources that were made available as a rapid response to the emergency be seen as effective learning alternatives, even after the emergency.

We live in times of great uncertainty, where there are more questions than answers. There is a possibility that the learning gaps in the region will widen.  While scenarios are planned and impacts are estimated, the uncertainty continues. The emergency will pass, and meanwhile education must continue to ensure the learning of all students. Thus, it is essential that countries plan and reflect on what is coming next, once the emergency is over and the education systems have to face greater challenges, such as the social and economic ones that will prevail after the COVID-19 crisis.

Will children be able to learn from home?  Will countries be able to generate policies and plans that can reverse or minimize the effects of the crisis on student learning in the most vulnerable contexts?

[i] UNESCO Institute for Statistics, 2020. Calculates the data available to date from 26 countries in Latin America and the Caribbean.

[ii] In PISA, on average in all countries, the difference between adjacent grade scores is approximately 40 points. For more information, refer to the report: OECD (2019), PISA 2018 Results (Volume I): What Students Know and Can Do, p. 44.

[iii] These countries include The Bahamas, Barbados, Belize, Guyana, Haiti, Jamaica, Mexico, Dominican Republic, Suriname, Trinidad and Tobago, and Venezuela,

[iv] These countries include Bolivia, Argentina, Costa Rica, Colombia, Brazil, El Salvador, Peru, Chile, Guatemala, Paraguay, Honduras, Uruguay, Nicaragua and Panama.


Filed Under: Educational systems, English

Sabine Rieble

Sabine Rieble – Aubourg es Especialista Principal en Educación en el Banco Interamericano de Desarrollo (BID) en Washington DC. Actualmente es el punto focal de la coordinación de programas de educación del Banco en Haití y jefa de equipo para operaciones en Barbados y Trinidad y Tobago. Sabine ha trabajado en el Sector de Educación en el Caribe de habla Inglesa, incluyendo Guyana, Barbados, Bahamas, Trinidad y Tobago y Jamaica. Trabajó durante ocho años en las representaciones del BID en Haití y Trinidad y Tobago. Desde marzo de 2013, ha vuelto a liderar el equipo de educación en Haití luego de haber diseñado el programa del Banco para el sector de educación después del terremoto de 2010. Ha publicado artículos sobre la autonomía de trabajadores, tecnología y su impacto al trabajo. Sabine Rieble-Aubourg obtuvo su doctorado en Sociología de la Universidad de Indiana en Bloomington, Indiana (EE.UU.). Completó sus estudios de licenciatura en Administración de Empresas y Sociología en la Universidad de Mannheim en Alemania.

Adriana Viteri

Adriana Viteri es consultora de la División de Educación del Banco Interamericano de Desarrollo en Washington. Antes de unirse al BID, ella trabajó en la Oficina Regional para América Latina y el Caribe como especialista del Laboratorio Latinoamericano de Calidad de Educación (LLECE), donde fue parte de la planificación e implementación de principal evaluación de aprendizaje de la región. Ella fue responsable de la coordinación técnica del estudio y asesoramiento a los equipos nacionales. Lideró publicaciones y el programa de desarrollo de capacidades del estudio, donde se especializó en educación y medición de aprendizaje. Previo a su paso en Chile, trabajó en el Ministerio de Educación de Ecuador, en el Instituto de Estadísticas del Ecuador, en el Banco Central y en varios centros de investigación nacionales e internacionales. Adriana es economista de la Pontificia Universidad Católica del Ecuador y cursó sus estudios en políticas públicas en la Universidad de Chile.

Madiery Vásquez

Madiery es consultora en la División de Educación del Banco Interamericano de Desarrollo. Trabaja en la agenda de transformación digital de la educación en América Latina y el Caribe, con un enfoque en los sistemas de información y gestión educativa. Anteriormente trabajó en investigaciones y operaciones de préstamos en temas de pobreza, salud, protección social, seguridad social y género del BID. Madiery es economista del Instituto Tecnológico de Santo Domingo de la República Dominicana.

Elena Arias Ortiz

Elena Arias Ortiz is a Senior Education Specialist. She joined the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) in 2011 as part of the Young Professional Program. Her first rotation was in the Competitiveness and Innovation Division. Since then, she has been part of the Education Division. Before joining the IDB, she previously worked as a consultant for the World Bank, UNDP, and the European Commission. Elena holds a Master Degree in Economic Analysis and a Ph.D. in Economics, both from the Université libre de Bruxelles (ULB). Her research focuses mainly on the development of skills and the transition of student to higher education and the workplace and the use of digital tools to improve learning. Her publication record includes international peer-reviewed journals.

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Education In Focus

"Education In Focus" is the Education Division's blog, a space where our specialists and guest authors share their reflections, experiences and knowledge to promote informed discussions on educational issues among policy makers, experts, teachers, parents, and other stakeholders. Our goal: to provide insights to public policies that guarantee effective and quality education for all children and young people in Latin America and the Caribbean.

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