Challenges of Education During a Global Pandemic Session

The case of Mexico

On behalf the Ministry Esteban Moctezuma, head of the Secretariat of Public Education in Mexico, I appreciate so much your kind invitation to be here. Thanks so much and congratulations for your annual conference.

Context

The Mexican educational system has 265,277 schools:

Initial education: 6,242

Preschool: 90,446

Elementary: 96,508

Middle School: 39,967

High School: 21,010

Universities: 5,535

Technical Colleges: 5,569

The enrollment is 36,635,816, equivalent to the population of Poland (36.9 million) or Canada (37.7 million).

The Federal department of education has the regulation and the operation is run by local authorities.

Compulsory education in Mexico is from k-12, and the attendance is [1]

• Preschool 72.3%
• Elementary 104.7%
• Middle School: 96.1%
• High School from: 78.9% and
• University: 34.9%

Special educational services are offered to 68 native languages ​​and dialects; in preschool enrollment is 396,755 and for elementary 793,566 children. The majority languages ​​are Náhuatl, Maya and Tseltal.

[1] Coverage (Gross enrollment rate): Total number of students at an educational level at the beginning of the school year, for every one hundred people in the population group with the regulatory age to attend that level. Calculated with mid-year population projections, CONAPO, version 2018.

For more than 60 years, national regulatory system (SEP) has distributed free textbooks to all students from preschool to middle. This year the goal es 161 million books.

Also, textbooks are sent to Mexican communities abroad through the 50 Mexican Consulates in the United States. Last year were 162,315 textbooks. The “Mexico Schools” in Central America are also considered. Last school year were sent textbooks for 4908 girls and boys from Guatemala.

The New Mexican School.

The Government of President Andrés Manuel López Obrador established a National Educational Agreement to create a New Mexican School model. During and after the electoral campaign, a lot of meetings were held with teachers, parents, social organizations and interest groups.

The main agreements were:

1. a) Recognize teachers and stop holding them as the only responsible for the poor performance of the educational system and national exams; develop an intense program of teacher training and updating.
2. c) Focus educational work on students; give greater attention and resources to indigenous and poor communities… “… for the welfare of all, first the poor”.
3. d) Focus the school work on the rescue of values: honesty, respect, tolerance, collaboration, peaceful coexistence, among others.
4. e) Establish a program to dignify school buildings, and hand over its administration to parents.
5. f) Establish a vast scholarship program for girls, boys and young people
6. g) “Zero rejection”, open the access to the university to all young applicants.

These agreements made a change in the legal framework last year, whose aims, objectives and purposes are known as the “New Mexican School model.”

Among its purposes are Inclusion; eliminate marginalization; and the search for excellence at all educational levels.

But, suddenly the emergency appears…

At the beginning of March, the Government of Mexico defined the main actions to face the proliferation of Covid-19.

The first measure was to establish the “healthy distance”, consisting of the restriction of mobility outside home and suspension to all external activities of the people. This made the suspension of face-to-face teaching.

Action to face Covid-19

Immediately, deliberative decisions were made within the state educational authorities (Conaedu) and it was agreed to establish “Learn at Home”, using free textbooks as a basis, supported by television classes and teaching programs via the Internet. The program, served schoolchildren from the last week of March until June.

The construction of essential contents for television was in charge of the Department of Educational Television of the SEP itself, with the support of other state and federal educational agencies.

In other meetings with Conaedu, consensual decisions were made to evaluate the children and do not miss the school year. Also, an Agreement set the rules for the return to class and the establishment of nine protocols for all campus before classes face to face return.

• Sanitation and cleaning of classrooms. The cleaning days will be held one week before returning to class; three filters were set of co-responsibility: home, school and classroom.
• Guarantee access to soap and water or gel and all cleaning products to all schools.
• Care of male and female teachers in risk groups (those with diseases or upper to 60).
• Mandatory use of face mask.
• Establish healthy distance protocols for the entrances and exits of the students, staggered recesses, assigned fixed places and alternate attendance at school by last name and create a remedial course for those students who required it.
• Maximize the use of open spaces.
• Suspension of any type of ceremonies or meetings in closed areas.
• In the case of early detection of a COVID-19, the school will be closed.
• Social emotional support for teachers, students and their families.

From the academic point of view, communication with the Technical Councils of the basic education schools was reinforced. Offering information and practical advice for remote teaching, emotional support for students and accompanying parents as a substitute teacher at home.

Ten basic suggestions for work at home were settled:

• Create a schedule and routine for your girls and boys in home.
• Establish a fixed space for your study: work table, chair and where to store your supplies and books.
• Assists your daughters and sons meanwhile they are taking classes by TV or other way.
• If there are more than one child, organize them according to the transmission schedules.
• Keep your communication with children’s teachers
• Help them organize their books and school supplies
• Locate in advance the schedules and channels where the classes will be broadcast for your grade and repeating schedules.
• Identify the phone numbers and contacts to request advice or assessment.
• For your children.
• In case of going out, comply with all safety and hygiene measures.
• Help your daughters and sons to organize a portfolio of experiences.

For the second phase of attention to the educational system, starting with this new school year that began on August 24, the “Learning home” program II, its coverage was broader by establishing four national networks with the involvement of private companies broadcasting, and the Ministry preserves the production of contents.

Likewise, the annual program of free textbooks to the entire national system was carried out.

Four national networks were created, with different schedules, repetition and broadcast on demand. More than 640 programs have been produced for early childhood and from k to 12 education.

For the care of indigenous communities, and working together with the Federal Program for Native Communities, educational services are broadcast on 18 radio stations in 22 native languages.

Distribution

Printing 160 million textbooks every year is a challenge… but distributing them to more than 200 thousand schools is greater.

The textbooks distribution is like a symphony. Initially, the books are produced in 31 graphic arts workshops -three of the government- and after that, are concentrated in two government storage locations: one in Tlalnepantla with a capacity for 100 million books and another in Queretaro for 70 million books.

For about 100 days they will go to 338 state warehouses throughout the country. Some states have only one warehouse, such as Colima, Aguascalientes, Tlaxcala or Morelos. But others have more than one reception point, like Veracruz, which has 24, this state receives 10 million books evert year but the State of Mexico receives 25 million books!

More than 4,000 vehicles will do the job. And from the state warehouses, the books will go to schools: urban and rural; preschool, elementary or middle school. Each state has its own distribution plan: municipalities, local government agencies, education administrators participate and also in remote places, the army and the Mexican navy takes part: they flew the books last year to the peninsula of Baja and the navy carry out them every year to the Mexican islands.

Going to the mountains or the jungle is a challenge. A great effort and an adventure. The books arrive in jeeps, canoes, donkeys or helicopters.

Finally, the books arrive to remote schools, and in many families, they are the only cultural heritage in their homes.

Let me share a video about this effort, take it by a Mexican paper.

Three successful experiences

It is amazing to live in pandemic crisis; – the last one happened a hundred years ago and was called Spanish flu -. For me, as a Mexican educational administrator, it happened at the same time when I have had live three- outstanding scenarios:

First. Last year we -the textbooks agency, started a pilot program to reduce the use of paper in the production of textbooks and how to increase the use of digital applications: less paper and more digital contents.

Then, we produced a multi-year geography textbook for 6th grade that was printed using paper with 40% recycled fiber. The book was prepared for use for five years with a saving of 40,000 trees and other eco-friendly benefits. The book will serve five generations and each year every student will have a workbook that they get to keep.

This book was the first textbook in Mexico to include QR codes in its design: links digital content from a book making digital content accessible to everyone.

Second. It was a priority as well, the digitization of all textbooks, and they were placed on an Internet portal and later on an app. (If you like, you can download it to your cell phone right now: it’s free and takes 5 seconds to download). All the historical books from 1960 were added, with all their emotional charge. Millions of Mexicans since then have been educated with textbooks, whose best-known reference is “the homeland” … this beautiful image of a Mexican woman from Tlaxcala.

Third. Our Digital library. After the extraordinary successful of the app and the portal with the digital books used during the beginning of the pandemic (April to June, where up to half a million daily visits were registered), for the new “Learning home program II”, we added some additional polities:

The app and the site were reinforced in an alliance with Google. The rapid service capacity for handling large volumes of information and users was strengthened. Also, new Sections were established: Collaboration with important academic institutions such as El Colegio de Mexico, the Mexican Academy of Language, the National Pedagogical University, Radio Education, the National College, among others.

Let me show you the reinforced app, and the Analytics made by Google in these four weeks back to school.

 “CONALITEG DIGITAL” app and the Web Site

The web site www.conaliteg.sep.gob.mx, was designed to be a digital resource for students, teachers, parents and other audiences who want to consult educational content.

Within the framework “Learn at Home” program of the Ministry of Public Education, the free textbooks, along with other educational materials are available online and are one of the key elements for this program.

All the digital content provided has been a great support for the strategy implemented.

• Since the beginning of classes, more than thirty-one million visits to free textbook web site.
• More than 6 million users, mainly women between 25 and 35 years old, from desktops.
• The three most consulted books of elementary school are: The Spanish book for 5th grade, Geography for 6th grade and the Spanish book for 3rd grade.
• We have registered an average of 16 thousand active users during the day.
• On average 5,600 pageviews per second in peak hours from 11:00 to 14:00 hrs.
• The states that most frequently consult the page are Mexico City, State of Mexico, Veracruz, Jalisco and Puebla.
• Record of almost 4 million pageviews on September 17^th.

In the header of the web site is the section named About Us, here is relevant information about our work; In the Press section you will find the relevant news about main activities, there is also the section named Route of your books where you can monitor the progress of the national distribution and publications, Gallery and Documents.

In the body of the site there are banners with information about recent publications, where you can enter the information with a single click, then you will find the menu of the digital catalog of basic education books by levels: Preschool, Elementary, middle high school, high school and indigenous education.

The section of the Entity where I Live is a menu of all the books by state, this section was included as we identified that they are of great interest to users.

Within this section, you can select the state and have direct access to the book with relevant information about the geography, history and economy of each state that allows strengthening of the Mexican identity.

We continue with a very specific section called “Materials and Readings” and we begin with:

1. Historical Catalog

Here is the historical catalog with the covers of the free textbooks that are pieces of memory and images that move emotions.

The first ones that were used were between 1960 and 1962. Afterwards, the most widespread cover, identified with the textbooks with “La Patria”, by Jorge González Camarena, was published.

1. Pictorial Collection

Pictorial collection made up of 42 works of art, by 38 different plastic artists, whose work illustrated, at the time, the cover of free textbooks and is part of the cultural heritage.

1. Virtual Library “Thousands Of Stories”

The Virtual library Thousands of Stories incorporates 28 different titles of English books for preschool and elementary school.

In this digital library you can consult more than 74 additional titles, from recognized classic authors such as William Shakespare, Charles Dickens, Edgar Allan Poe and Oscar Wilde. These Spanish readings seek to promote family coexistence and bring girls, boys and young people to reading.

From the Colegio de México, the Dictionary of Spanish in Mexico, academic journals and online courses, as well as an excellent collection of titles through the Daniel Cosío Villegas Library.

Summary

1. Faced with this emergency, the first decision of the national educational system was to protect students and their teachers, establishing a remote teaching system;
2. At all times, decisions are discussed and agreed upon based on proposals from the national regulatory system (SEP) and the assessment and execution by state authorities
3. The communication system with teachers was strengthened to provide them with work tools, methodological suggestions, academic proposals and information on the content of the classes on television and their evaluation criteria.
4. It is clear that, until the authorization of the health authorities, the return to face-to-face classes will not be viable.