Balance or a balancing act? The challenge of ensuring comprehensive education in the context of a pandemic

The advance of COVID-19 has forced most governments around the world to close schools as a preventive measure against infection. More than one billion students and young people around the world have been affected by the closure of schools and universities, according to UNESCO, which estimates that 91.3 percent of the world’s student population has had to abandon their desks. And in Latin America, according to UNICEF data, this increases to 95 percent.

Faced with the greatest educational disruption in living memory, virtual learning options have been launched in many countries, including online courses on educational platforms, but not all solutions can guarantee children’s effective access to knowledge. For, the extent of technological development, the resources available to families, and children’s familiarity with digital technology all vary greatly around the world.

COVID-19 has brought to light a number of scenarios that render all citizens vulnerable — a health crisis, economic infection, job loss, social distancing, and so on. And this is especially true for less advantaged members of society, who were vulnerable already.

Adults are experiencing heightened risk perception, but above all a responsibility overload. Families now have a duty to not only continue raising and protecting their children but to provide them with the education that has, out of necessity, been disrupted, by using the new technologies to the best of their ability. They must also ensure their well-being, provide them with “free” time for leisure within the confines of four walls. Not captives, just homebodies, but this is hardly conducive to letting off steam.

On top of the tasks and commitments involved in combining home and work, adults are also expected to find a proper explanation for their children in such an unusual and unexpected context.

The trick is to provide children with balance and hope and to take advantage of this extraordinary opportunity to share more everyday experiences, encourage growth and patience, even if it amounts to a balancing act on a hire wire.

For Eva Rodríguez, Assistant Director of the Diversity, Health, and Well-Being Area at MAPFRE, this time brings with it risks, but also opportunities. After this crisis, she believes that a large percentage of “children will have become more independent and responsible” in their approach to tasks, and new technologies will have been incorporated into an aspect of their lives where they weren’t really present before: the school environment, which is predominantly classroom-based in most countries.

According to Eva Rodríguez, the current circumstances are creating “an opportunity to strengthen emotional ties, although there is a risk of parents experiencing stress if schools demand too much of them or if they have not received sufficient education to answer the questions their children might have.”

She expects the main risks to also include “the possibility of falling out of routines and not reaching all academic objectives” set for students this academic year. For less privileged families, she warns of the danger that they will not have enough computers for every family member.

What are we learning from all this? That health and connection are essential parts of life, that satisfaction increases in line with the amount of effort we put in to overcoming extreme situations, that children deserve the greatest sacrifices. That we are not alone, and that the best way to deal with things is through humor and a positive spirit, that we can be flexible, without sacrificing order and routines, and that no one can have all the answers.