The Right to Education is the Right to an Inclusive and Equitable Education

Abstract

More than half a year has passed since we wrote a brief editorial in issue 14(1) of the Latin American Journal of Inclusive Education entitled ‘Covid-19 and the Education Gap’ (Murillo and Duk, 2020), and the global education landscape in the wake of the pandemic has remained largely unchanged. In Latin America and the Caribbean, due to the confinement and social distancing measures taken to contain the spread of the virus, schools remain closed and with that, face-to-face classes are suspended. Given the health measures required, which in many cases are difficult for schools to cope with, especially in resource-poor settings, several countries in the region have decided that schools will remain closed until the end of this school year and there is no certainty that they will reopen at the beginning of next year. Today, the top priority in all countries is to ensure a safe return to the classroom; from there, in some territories, a gradual, voluntary, agreed and prepared return to school is being pursued with the participation of school communities.

Given the complexity of this unprecedented crisis, we must recognise that the different education systems have made important efforts to mitigate the effects of the interruption of learning and to continue teaching through the combination of different modalities of distance education, the use of digital platforms, instant communication devices and social networks, as well as educational programmes through television and radio, which have a long tradition in the region. However, it is paradoxical that while greater resources and technological innovations are available to expand opportunities and support learning, they are not accessible to all, exacerbating inequalities and the exclusion of the most disadvantaged groups.