Televised Education, a Solution or a Problem?

The pandemic led governments and educators to resort to an old technology: television, to avoid long-term setbacks for students without internet access.

Countries worldwide have responded to schools’ forced closures due to the pandemic by adopting various remote learning approaches, like online classes through radio or television. The pandemic brought to light the socioeconomic gaps, lack of information, and the reality that teachers are not prepared to be digital facilitators in a remote or online scheme.

Without a doubt, this situation is one of the greatest alterations of education that the world has ever known and has affected more than 90% of the world’s student population. According to the UNESCO Institute of Statistics and the International Task Force on Teachers for Education 2030, close to 826 million students do not have a computer at home, 706 million lack internet access and 56 million live in areas with no cellphone signal.

Mexico’s response to the pandemic: “Learn at home.”

In Mexico, faced with the challenge of delivering remote education to an unequal population, the Secretary of Public Education (SEP) launched the program “Aprende en casa” (Learn at home). This consists of television and radio transmissions, the internet, and workbook activities in marginalized communities that do not have access to other communications. Besides this programming, the students have free books such as math reinforcement, infographics, and other materials.

The program is not new. It started on April 20 to save the 2019-2020 school year and has now been improved and renamed “Learn at Home II.” Although it presents different delivery alternatives, television is one of the most accessible. According to Esteban Moctezuma, Secretary of Public Education, nine of every ten students access their classes via television.

In Mexico, 92.5 % of households have a television. The high number is due to the Transición Digital Terrestre (Digital Earth Transition) (TDT) program of the past six years. This granted 10.2 million devices to migrate from analog television to digital. Still, 2.7 million households do not have one.

The television stations that are used to broadcast the classes belong to Televisa, TV Azteca, Grupo Imagen, and Grupo Multimedia, which reach 92.5% of households in Mexico, according to official data from the National Survey on the Availability and Use of Information Technologies in the Homes (ENDUTIH 2019).

Teaching through television is complicated because it does not consider the rhythm or ways teachers plan and develop their classes. Also, educational channels compete with the content of the other channels, both educational and entertainment. Consequently, the activities requested by the programs and what the teachers requested do not coincide.

Aurora Saavedra Solá, Director General of Educational Materials, says that television should be the base from which teachers carry out their planning. Therefore, they are given the program of what will be transmitted and the schedule guide for the expected learning broadcasts.

Only the teachers can assign homework or extra tasks, as the programs only allow reflection exercises. The teachers are also responsible for selecting additional learning resources to strengthen the educational process, such as readings, videos, and applications.

Although each teacher decides the activities, these are not mandatory because they do not want to overwhelm the students or their families. To deliver the assignments and answer students’ questions, the national education system teachers can access their students’ contact information. The SEP even ensured that 80% of teachers contact their students every week by WhatsApp, phone, or even face-to-face if necessary.

The programming consists of curricular topics led by teachers with a distinguished background and guests who specialize in specific issues. It begins with three weeks of review before starting normal programming. Each grade has different schedules on different channels so that if there is more than one student at home, all can find the best way to access their classes.

Beyond access to a TV, one of the big problems facing this educational model is that it shows the teachers’ lack of experience to teach remotely and the students’ difficulties in adapting, demonstrating that there must be an investment in connectivity and digitalization.

Most students are accustomed to face-to-face classes, so they do not have self-learning or self-regulation skills. Also, remote education has been conceived and designed for adults, not the youth population, let alone children, which poses a major challenge for this educational modality.

Although the government assures that the “Learn at Home II” program is unique and that only this country has a pact with television station companies to broadcast the classes, this is not true. Since March, when the pandemic was declared worldwide, many countries have turned to televised education, using various strategies ranging from recording lessons in the classrooms to cartoon animations. Some focus on dividing content by student ages while others, like Peru, by grades.

What does television education look like around the world?

In Tanzania, Ubongo, a trendy organization that makes educational cartoons, offered its programs to television stations throughout Africa for free. Because many countries in that region do not have internet access, this medium is the most effective, given that it is in their possession.

In China, the government offers a hybrid between online and televised classes. However, there are provinces, such as Sichuan, where everything is on television to prevent students from spending too much time on their computers.

In Mozambique, UNICEF and the international humanitarian fund called “Education Cannot Wait” support educational radio and television programs, including translation into local languages. Thanks to this, many students have access to Telescola, the country’s televised education. Every day, starting at 15:00 hours, national television begins broadcasting classes, which last 30 minutes each. The tv that Telescola uses is TVM, and it transmits about 1.5 to 2.5 ho
urs of content.

“Without Telescola, it would be difficult to understand the subjects and solve the exercises. The teachers who participate in Telescola clarify many of my questions, and I manage to do the homework they give at school and better understand the subject,” said Alzira Ngomane, a 17-year-old student, to UNICEF.

Many teachers in Mozambique have the opportunity to participate. Such was the case of Constancia Guiama, a second-year teacher. She says that “this has been an added-value experience for both the teachers who participate in the filming and those who view them from home.”

Unfortunately, it is too early to know whether television education has been effective as the pandemic continues. This remote model leaves a lot to be desired compared to the online modality and its superior interactive possibilities. Still, it is a very accessible alternative to serve the 826 million students who do not have a computer to attend online classes.

Translation by Daniel Wetta.

Paulette Delgado

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This article from Observatory of the Institute for the Future of Education may be shared under the terms of the license CC BY-NC-SA 4.0