(Expansion) – This Monday, about 24 million preschool, primary and secondary students return to classes with the hope that it will be a year more similar to pre-pandemic normality.
However, the last two and a half years have not passed in vain. Thousands of children will arrive with gaps in basic learning and socio-emotional impairments that threaten their school performance. Two issues that seem to be ignored by the federal government.
Despite the fact that alerts from organizations point to losses of knowledge equivalent -on average- to two years of school, the Ministry of Public Education (SEP) does not have an articulated plan for the evaluation and recovery of learning. On the contrary, now that mission is carried out mainly by the school communities, whom the SEP has left with minimal support and insufficient resources to face these great challenges.
Worse yet, a few days ago we learned that the pilot test to implement a new basic education study plan will begin this cycle. . And, as if that were not enough, it is a document that disqualifies the importance of standardized evaluations that are so necessary to measure the lack of knowledge and skills with which children arrive, as well as to monitor improvements as the process progresses. school cycle.
Given this scenario, states can make a difference to avoid wasting time in the education of students.
A recent analysis of the found that, in March 2021 when schools opened for in-person classes, 12 entities implemented actions to both reduce learning loss and offer social-emotional support.
Feasible actions such as, for example, Mexico City that took advantage of the Liberty, Art, Education and Knowledge Innovation Points (PILARES) to provide advice and tutoring in mathematics, language and science, as well as socio-emotional workshops. In Baja California, an alliance was made with health personnel to provide free psychological care to basic education students.
Although good practices were detected, there are still 20 entities that have not implemented actions in both areas and that complement each other. A student with mental health problems will hardly learn what is taught.
This is an opportunity for the states to take advantage of their powers and adopt a more active role in the education of the girls and boys who live in their territory. A first step is to support their educational communities so that diagnostic evaluations can be carried out, as well as to concentrate and make transparent the actions they carry out to support this school year.
Investing in the education of girls, boys, adolescents and young people is investing in the skills and abilities that will allow them to access a better job when they finish their education. Every day that is lost due to inaction is a day that contributes to widening the profound inequality that afflicts this country and that puts the professional future of the new generations at risk.
If the Federal Government does not consider it a priority, then another level of government makes a difference.
Editor’s note: Fátima Masse is Director of the IMCO’s Inclusive Society. Follow her on Twitter as . The views expressed in this column are solely those of the author.
