Hybrid education: from emergence to transformation

It has been just over two years since schools almost everywhere in the world closed due to the pandemic, inaugurating the greatest natural experiment in the history of education.

Today we have an initial idea of ​​the results.

For low-income students — like the 60 million students in Latin America and the Caribbean who lack internet — the pandemic was a catastrophe.

But for those who were connected and had shared computers or at least a mobile phone, the lockdowns led to intensive testing of a huge variety of practices—some improvised, some traditional—of hybrid learning.

Although these students also suffered the social, psychological and educational consequences of isolation, those who had teachers trained in the use of digital platforms and caregivers capable of supporting them with homework did not lose as much ground.

Some students even discovered new and better ways to learn.

Although face-to-face learning remains irreplaceable, many teachers today are convinced that hybrid education has enormous potential to expand learning spaces and provide the skills our young people need to thrive in the digital age.

But how do we ensure that the accelerated adoption of technology in education increases the quality of learning, without excluding the most vulnerable students?

The authorities must define the strategies to achieve this leap, but this transformation will not come only from the State.

During the last two years we have seen an unprecedented collaboration between families, schools, universities, students and civil society, and that same sense of co-responsibility will be essential to undertake the four great tasks of this next stage.

First, since there is no single model of hybrid education, continuous experimentation must be encouraged to find strategies adapted to the specific needs of each country, each region and each social segment and each educational level.

In Mexico, for example, the Ministry of Public Education is exploring ways to optimize its education system for rural and isolated communities, strengthening the telesecundaria program and promoting community connectivity in public places.

Second, it is vital to empower teachers, who, by all evidence, continue to be the most important actor in any learning model.

The lack of continuing training for them has weakened education systems in many countries in the region for decades, particularly in Latin America.

But the pandemic has shown that teachers, as well as students, can use hybrid modalities to strengthen their capacities in flexible ways.

In Brazil, an alliance has been formed between municipal educational networks, Sincroniza Educação and Itaú Social, to pilot a teacher training platform that offers synchronous and asynchronous segments of instruction.

An evaluation will be carried out in 2023 that will provide rigorous evidence on the use of hybrid models for teacher training in each modality,

The case of higher education deserves special attention due to the unstoppable growth of distance learning at this educational level.

This growth requires developing and applying quality assessment and accreditation procedures, as the Organization of Ibero-American States for Education, Science and Culture (OEI) is already implementing in some of the most important universities in Ibero-America.

The third task is to ensure that hybrid teaching serves to supplement traditional education with 21st century skills and technical and socio-emotional competencies demanded by the labor market.

Along these lines, the National Teacher Training Institute of El Salvador, in association with the Colombian NGO Coschool, is offering a package of webinars, group tutorials and reference materials to more than 3,500 teachers who want to incorporate socio-emotional development into the classroom.

Finally, we must guarantee universal access to the internet and close the last digital divides.

The private sector has the resources and technology to do so, but only when the State imposes regulatory frameworks that ensure investments and competitive prices for all socioeconomic levels.

The Internet Para Todos initiative, which emerged from a pact between the Government of Peru and Telefónica Peru, is one of several that have shown that with innovative policies it is possible to connect the most remote communities in rural areas.

There are no more excuses to deny this resource to all our youth, regardless of their economic situation.

The Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) and the OEI have launched an initiative that finances these and other efforts to expand hybrid teaching in the region with a large community of partners.

By continuing to work together, we can still make the legacy of the pandemic a more dynamic, flexible, and inclusive educational ecosystem.

Mariano Jabonero

is Secretary General of the Organization of Ibero-American States (OEI) and

, President of the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB). 

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