Google.org, Google’s philanthropy, through its Distance Learning Fund, is supporting Teach For All’s efforts to ensure the continuity of learning across Latin America during the COVID-19 pandemic. 

With support from  Google.org, Teach For All’s network partners Enseña Chile, Enseña por México, Enseña Perú, Enseña por Colombia and Enseñá por Argentina will provide training and support to public school teachers in distance learning strategies. To reach teachers and students, these Teach For All partner organizations will partner with local governments, as well as work with public and private sector organizations to create educational content for radio, TV, and printed instructional materials to enable remote learning in Argentina, Chile, Colombia, Mexico and Peru. 

“Supporting organizations that ensure continuity of learning is more important today than ever before.” said Hector Mujica, Head of Google.org for Latin America. “We are proud to support the proven and effective programs of Teach For All and their partners across Argentina, Chile, Colombia, Mexico, and Peru to ensure that the youth across these countries continue to learn and advance towards greater opportunities.” 

“With COVID-19, teachers had to abruptly change their teaching practice from face to face instruction to a virtual learning experience. With our  Google.org collaboration, I am excited that the five Enseña partners in the region will help 10,000 teachers be better prepared to face this new reality of virtual learning by offering contextualized distance learning strategies and attractive educational content for radio, TV, and printed materials to reach remote areas,” said Ana Florez, Head of the Americas Region at Teach For All. 

Through this effort,  Teach For All will enable partner organizations to expand their efforts to create educational content for radio, TV, and print materials and enable remote learning for the most underserved children and youth in their countries. Examples of these efforts include Enseña Chile’s radio program “La Radio Ensena,” which is currently being broadcast by more than 198 radio stations daily across nine regions in Chile. Enseña por Colombia’s podcast “A Prender La Onda” now has more than 100 episodes on air via Spotify and in partnership with regional radio stations. These 30-minute programs covering topics relevant to middle and high school subjects have the potential to reach thousands of students across Colombia who don’t have access to internet connectivity. Moreover, Enseña por Argentina’s “capsules of learning” or CAPs, are content packages designed to be shared through social media and other low bandwidth connectivity channels, to develop academic and socio-emotional skills. These CAPs include audio messages, images, or short videos that foster student engagement and curiosity about their learning. 

The partnership will also support efforts to expand partnerships with ministries of education across the five countries, aiming to support as many students as possible. Some of these efforts include Enseña por Mexico’s collaboration with state secretaries of education to broadcast  “El Poder de las Emociones,” a podcast intended to develop socio-emotional skills in youth, alongside a collaboration with the Early Childhood Ministry to develop TV content to reach more than 10 million households. Similarly, Enseña Perú has collaborated with the Ministry of Education to design sessions for Aprendo En Casa TV, an official government project that airs 30 lessons every week for students in 5th to 11th grades. According to the National Education Ministry data, Aprendo En Casa TV has so far reached more than 1.5 million students in Peru and has the potential to reach many more. 

“The educational reality in a pandemic is very challenging and above all the great inequality that has been more evident than ever,” said Magdalena Fernandez, CEO of Enseñá por Argentina.  “Today more than ever, we are challenged to work with a sense of possibility, urgency, and responsibility. I am convinced that the partnership with Google.org and the partners in the Teach For All network is contributing to put students at the center of our decision-making to guarantee no student is left behind in their learning.”

We are excited to learn more from the network's partners in Latin America as this partnership with Google.org continues to grow and reach more students in low-connectivity communities who have been affected by the COVID-19 pandemic.