During the meeting between educational policy leaders, remote learning was discussed, treated as a public policy. Attendees shared experiences and tendencies that were shown during the pandemic. In addition, the persistent challenges were shown, such as the reduction of the digital gap and inequalities.
The key points in the dialogue were:
- Remote is not the same as digital.
- The measures taken by the political leaders must consider the context in which they will be developed, as each territory has its own limitations and advantages.
- Parents and carers are a fundamental part of students’ learning process, because they guide them.
- We must think of distance learning as a constant, planned, and structured learning category, not just an emergency mechanism.
- The professional development of teachers is important to be able to have trained teachers who have digital skills and who are prepared to face their challenges.
During this meeting, the participants played an active role to contribute from each of their experiences.
These were some of the comments:
“Among the alliances that can be developed is the connection between education and the television and the radio. For example, through the alliance with the British Council, we manage programs in English that are transmitted in the educational time frame on the city’s television channel.” Ulia Yemail, Colombia.
“In Venezuela, the strategic alliance of the British Council with the Centro Nacional para el Mejoramiento de la Enseñanza de la Ciencia (CENAMEC) (National Centre for the Improvement of Science Teaching) and the Simón Rodríguez Micro-mission allowed for the training of English teachers in the entire country. This experience, that started in 2015 and continues evolving, has had many positive experiences.” Rosa López de D`Amico, Venezuela.
42 people from different regions of America and the Caribbean attended this meeting, together with conference speakers Camila Morsch (regional director for English-teaching in Education and Society, British Council), Leandro Folgar (Chairman of Plan Ceibal, Uruguay) and Mayda Ramos (TEFL Consultant for the Ministry of Education of Cuba).