It is known by all that COVID19 has permeated all the spheres of the human life. This pandemic surprised us when we were absorbed in what we were calling «normality» and asleep in our comforts and personal anxieties. We never imagined that something so miniscule would have the power to take away thousands of human lives around the world and in a record time. Neither social status, nor fame, nor money have been useful as “saving-life” pass. This reality made us to see that we are not as powerful as we believe and, as Pope Francis affirms, “our vulnerability was exposed”.
This pandemic has also unmasked the gaps existing in many areas of society and the educational field has not been an exception. The educational systems of the world have been confronted and challenged to change their dynamics and some of them did so with a higher speed and effectiveness than others. The great powers countries of the world, thanks to the virtual and digital media, managed to give continuity to the educational processes in a short time but unfortunately, for the so-called third world countries, the reality has been very different: in addition to the lack of connectivity in various territories, they could not rely on electronic equipment and devices and so be able to access virtual classes and, as an important fact in this historical moment, a large number of the teaching population that we could classify as “digital illiterate”, has also slowed down the processes.
Since all this reality, great questions arise to challenge the education agents: What to teach? Why to teach? How to evaluate? What to do in a virtual classroom or how to design a didactic guide to keep alive interest and motivation about learning? These are only some of the many questions that the reality of COVID-19 involves in the education sector. And it is not so simple to think about education in times of pandemic.
In the first months, when we were confined, education experts spoke out and said that the school could not be the same once it would be possible to go back to the physical presence in classroom in the dynamic we now know as “alternation”. And it is so; many will surely have achieved this urgent and necessary innovation, but many others will continue to be submerged in the lags of a traditional education that does not permeate the students’ lives, nor does it enable them to become transforming agents of society.
Consequently, the roles and the scenario of the educational process have changed. The exigency is not only for the teachers about the use of technological media or in the urgent need to achieve a true curricular transformation committed to improve the educational quality. Parents and caregivers have also been forced to learn again and to place themselves in the perspective of teaching and, in most of the cases, they were not trained or accustomed to do it, because they do not have the tools or the basic educational level to accompany the academic process of their children. That has generated stress, fatigue and even school dropout within the houses, especially in the most vulnerable population.
We always say that responsibility for the educational process is a commitment concerning both educational institutions and families but, in theory, until before the pandemic, only the first instance really assumed this commitment. We must acknowledge that the task of “reinventing ourselves” has been assigned to both students, parents and educators.
It is common to hear a phrase that, at a given time, was valid: «we were not prepared»; now it is time to leave behind this justification and to arm ourselves with passion, dynamism and creativity to face the historical moment urging us. This challenge entails to recognize the structural problem of education, the evident disparity in educational and technological opportunities as a reality that cannot be ignored, but we should not rule out the possibility of developing a humanizing process within the educational institutions and whose priority is to train resilient students, capable of getting out of themselves, understanding life since an altruistic sense and aware of the need to work for an integral ecology. The 21st century education has to be an education encouraging rather than teaching how to think and to live together.
Initiatives like the Global Educational Pact, promoted by Pope Francis, aim exactly to open doors so that, education and real processes of social transformation can take place. Now it is the moment: let’s not lose the opportunity to re-signify the educational environment starting with small actions.
The pandemic has put us in front of this great challenge and according to our being and doing as Capuchin Tertiaries we own all the tools that we need to give a coherent response based on the Gospel and the tenacity of our Charism.
Hna. Yury Tatiana Amaya Mendoza, Tc