Impact of COVID-19 on education in Mexico

Abstract

It must be recognized that we were not prepared to face this atypical situation caused by the coronavirus disease (COVID-19), which has caused a crisis that will have significant negative effects on all social sectors, particularly health and education. , as well as employment and the evolution of poverty. (CEPAL1, 2020)

This disease put people of all ages at risk and traveled from the most privileged places to the most modest; it lodged the same in those who are outside of letters, as in those who are distinguished by their knowledge, and indistinctly infected those who cultivate the highest values, as well as those who show off their detachment from them.

In the field of education, the confinement and closure of schools and universities as measures to contain the pandemic, led governments to design educational strategies such as distance education, to guarantee the continuity of learning.

Faced with this health emergency, emerging pedagogical practices arose where there was a unique transfer from the classroom and the recreation and rest spaces, to the living room and dining room of the house and, in the case of basic education, the participation of mothers and fathers to address academic problems.

There are many limitations that both teachers and students have had to deal with, from the low or null connectivity and the lack of training in the use and management of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT), based on the assumption of that there would be a computer with internet access or a television, as well as the necessary human capacities to advise mothers and fathers or tutors of students on scientific,  humanistic and artistic issues.

According to World Bank estimates, the pandemic caused a lag in Mexico equivalent to two years of schooling. Before the pandemic, Mexicans reached an average learning level corresponding to 3rd grade of secondary school. Today your knowledge will only reach the equivalent of 1st grade of high school. (IMCO, 2021)

DOI:https://doi.org/10.56238/ptoketheeducati-047