More than 94 thousand Brazilian public schools had difficulties in carrying out all the pedagogical activities determined by the Ministry of Education during the Covid-19 pandemic, a period in which remote classes were implemented.
The number represents 93% of all units in the education network, which includes municipal, state and federal schools in the country.
The data comes from a survey released by the Regional Center for Studies for the Development of the Information Society (Cetic), an entity linked to the Internet Management Committee in Brazil (CGI).
All these public educational institutions pointed to the lack of technological devices – computers and cell phones – as the main impediment to online classes during the health crisis. The lack of internet access was also mentioned by the same number of schools.
The third most recurrent obstacle reported by school principals was the “adversity faced by parents and guardians to support students in school activities”, an issue pointed out by 92% of the teaching units.
Soon after, the directors report the difficulty of the schools themselves in helping students who live in isolated areas or in a condition of social vulnerability.
“In Brazil, one of the great challenges for the continuity of education in the pandemic was the inequality of access to devices and the Internet by the Brazilian population in their homes. In this sense, the survey data indicate that, although 83% of households had access to the Internet, almost half of them did not have a computer at home and 16% did not have a computer or Internet”, highlights an excerpt of the survey.
The teachers’ lack of familiarity with technological devices also represented a difficulty in carrying out educational activities during the new coronavirus pandemic.
According to the study, 63% of educators warned of their low ability to use these resources during remote activities. Among the main obstacles, the lack of knowledge with virtual meeting platforms, such as Skype and Zoom, was the most mentioned by teaching professionals.
In order to solve the problems, some Brazilian public schools have made available instruments to conduct distance learning through some modality, whether via radio, television, distance learning materials or online platforms.
The City Hall of Rio de Janeiro, for example, made available recorded video classes that were aired on an open channel, but this was not a reality for most students.
Reference: CNN Brasil
