Mexico: Aprende en Casa (Learning at home)

Abstract

The programme Aprende en Casa (Learning at Home) was created by the Secretary of Public Education of Mexico in order to provide pedagogical continuity to 25 million students from preschool, primary and secondary education across the country, following the closure of all schools nationwide due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The backbone of the initiative was educational TV, a field in which Mexico has long-standing experience gained since the creation, in 1968, of Telesecundaria (the programme Telesecundaria is implemented by the General Directorate of Educational Television in Mexico (Dirección General de Televisión Educativa), at Mexico’s Secretary of Public Education), a national literacy initiative based on TV programmes for secondary schools in rural and isolated areas.

With less than half or the rural population with Internet access, Mexico managed to provide pedagogical continuity expanding its TV learning strategy for secondary education to primary and preschool levels. Its delivery focused on providing equal access to educational resources and was original in that it combined the traditional approach of Telesecundaria with updated features, such as a TV and online platforms network strategy to deal with the exponential increase of the target audience.