The acceleration of the crisis in education in the remote regions of Colombia by COVID-19

Abstract

The arrival of COVID-19 in Latin American countries marked the beginning of a series of measures that in some cases arrived late, putting the health system in check in some countries. Colombia kept its borders open until the first cases of the disease began to appear. However, one of the first measures taken was the suspension of face-to-face classes in both schools and universities. This meant that teachers would have to design strategies and teaching materials to serve students in schools, which would have to support the use of virtual platforms to maintain communication with students. Although the proposal was aimed at moving the face-to-face classes to virtual environments, it did not consider the students living in rural areas, the difficulties of connection and the handling of such platforms by both students and teachers. In this article, we try to highlight the complexity of moving face-to-face classes from a traditional, transmissions’ model to a virtual system with the same characteristics and in remote regions, as well as the lack of preparation of teachers to deal with the health crisis in order to face the changes that are coming at great speed.