SEATTLE, Washington — “The kids in our neighborhood are our kids and we don’t want our kids to fall behind,” Dalia Dãvila told the radio program, The World, in an interview. She and her partner, Fernando Lozano, are welcoming kids to their La Abuela tortilla shop in an effort to provide local children in Mexico with free internet and television viewing access so they are able to continue their education during the COVID-19 pandemic.
COVID-19’s Impact on Education
Since the pandemic began, some 2.5 million students have dropped out of Mexican public schools. This academic year of 2020, pandemic learning in Mexico has largely been conducted via pre-recorded programs on television. Forgoing interactive online classes with teachers, top education official, Secretary Moctezuma Barragán, insists that television-based education programs are the best route as television is far more widespread than internet. However, according to the most recent government data from 2015, in Mexico City, the country’s largest metropolitan hub, only 60% of households have televisions or stable broadband internet connection. Additionally, with multiple school-aged children in a single family, simultaneous classes can make schooling exceptionally difficult even in households with television and internet access.
La Abuela Tortilla Shop
Thus, there is a heightened need for community-led efforts to support pandemic learning in Mexico, ensuring that children do not miss out on a year of schooling. Dãvila and Lozana’s “Rinconcito de Esperanza,” meaning, the Corner of Hope, is doing just that. After hearing neighbors and friends expressing concern about maintaining their children’s education, the couple set up a television in their store and let children use the store’s Wi-Fi for learning.
At first, the makeshift tortilla shop classroom consisted of Dãvila and Lozana’s pickup truck and a tent outside the store. Neighboring shops then began opening their doors for classes that needed more room or a quiet space. At the convenience store next door, the owner closed his sidewalk for kids to use as a space for physical education. Down the street, the hardware store has provided food for many of the kids. Neighbors also provided a new television set when the first one burnt out in a rainstorm. Other donations from the community have included a tablet, a laptop, a box of textbooks, one smartphone, pencils, notebooks and more. Now, there are even volunteers who tutor the children in math, the sciences and English.
Expansion and Community Efforts
Most recently, thanks to a generous anonymous donation, Dãvila and Lozana rented the vacant storefront across the street from the La Abuela tortilla shop. There, they set up the new television and a whiteboard, creating a makeshift, pandemic-style classroom. With staggered schedules, they maintain a low number of schoolchildren there at once, while managing to provide a learning space for some 50 children in total. They have also distributed face masks and hand sanitizer to ensure safe practices amid the COVID-19 pandemic.
What started as an effort to help Dãvila and Lozana’s neighbors out during a particularly challenging time, has become a full-fledged community commitment to ensure that children can keep up their education despite COVID-19. For parents who have had to choose between helping their kids with classes or putting food on the table, La Abuela has been an enormous blessing.
Minimal Government Support for Pandemic Learning
Although the government has distributed 140 million free textbooks and provided radio classes for those with no television access, government support for pandemic schooling has largely been lacking, particularly illustrated by community-led efforts like Dãvila and Lozano’s tortilla shop. Television ownership is not evenly distributed across the country. In southern states, like Oaxaca, one in four households lack working televisions. Even for those with televisions, reception can be spotty. While schedules for classes were broadcasted and publicized on both free and paid television, exact details were hard to come by. For the most part, knowing where to find the online component of the schooling has mainly come from word-of-mouth. Government press conferences have been similarly vague, failing to explain what the educational programming will be covering, the themes, the duration, who the instructors are and what types of evaluations will be given. This lack of structure has further compounded the challenges of accessing educational programming in the first place.
In a country that has stark socio-economic divides, delivering a one-size-fits-all television-driven education model during COVID-19 is inherently challenging. Community-led efforts like La Abuela tortilla shop’s makeshift classroom are saving the day for families with strained resources and helping kids stay engaged with pandemic learning in Mexico.
– Samantha Friborg
Photo: Flickr