Ei-iE

Disadvantaged schools will be provided with new technologies and IT training for teachers, an initiative of Mexico's largest education union to help its members to overcome the technology gap that divides the country.

The Sindicato Nacional de Trabajadores de la Educación (SNTE), Education International’s (EI) affiliate in Mexico, is fighting against the gap in IT proficiency and access to technology that affects the country. The union has set up a programme that provides disadvantaged schools in the whole of Mexico with access to new technologies, and will sign up thousands of teachers to virtual wireless courses in order to develop their capacities. Teachers will also be provided with educational resources for their classrooms.

Tutorials for off-the-grid areas

In cooperation with IT provider Endless, the SNTE has created a platform with offline video tutorials developed by the union itself. During its first stage the platform was tested in the indigenous primary school Tlanesi.

The new tool allows teachers from rural, indigenous schools and no connectivity areas to have the same opportunities as those in urban areas. In this first stage, 200 devices will be delivered to 43 sections of the union SNTE in different schools in the whole country.

Quality tools, quality education

During the official presentation of the platform, SNTE president and EI Executive Board member Juan Diaz de la Torre emphasised the relationship between equal access to quality tools and the achievement of quality education: “Without quality education, the circle of poverty and marginalization will be always present”.

He went on to highlight that well-trained teachers are equally necessary to deliver quality education and improve the quality of public schools. SNTE, he said, “is a driver for professionalization and breaks paradigms of inequity with real and concrete actions like the one presented today.”