Through the ‘Being a Student’ test, the effects of the pandemic will be evaluated in 2022. There is at least two years of learning delay.
The Covid-19 pandemic has generated a delay at learning between one and two years. The Minister of Education, María Brown, has detailed that there are four areas where more reinforcement is needed (see box).
Although leveling processes have already begun, it is necessary to Raw data’ that detail the percentage of I lag behind, why the Ministry of Education can make decisions. To achieve this, the mechanism is an evaluation, which will be done in the middle of the school cycles of 2022, through the ‘Being a Student’ exam (SEST), points out, in an interview with LA HORA, Eduardo Salgado, executive director of the National Institute for Educational Evaluation (Ineval).
An expensive test
Salgado details that the assessment tool is very expensive so applying it to each of the students is not possible. That is why it will be carried out in about 25,000 students from the Coast-Galapagos regime and about 17,000 from the Sierra-Amazonía. The total investment is $ 700,000. “The whole process. Design the instruments, make the items, calibrate them, carry out the piloting, the application as such, the analysis ”, justifies the Director of Ineval.
The test is aimed at four educational levels, so the number of items varies: basic room (129 items), seventh grade (166), tenth (168) and Third year of high school (343). The areas that are measured are Mathematics; Language and literature; Natural Sciences and Social Studies. But there will also be modules to assess socio-emotional development.
In addition, this 2021 a pilot of the ‘Being a Childhood Student’ is being carried out for children in the first years of school, where their motor skills and other competencies of their age are evaluated.
Understand what is read, a weak point
Ineval’s figures maintain that only 36% of the 10 year old students they have a good reading comprehension, that is, they understand what they read.
This area of learning is one of the lowest not only within the country, but on a regional scale. For the fourth time, the students participated in the test of the Latin American Laboratory for the Evaluation of the Quality of Education of UNESCO, which measured reading comprehension. The results showed that “there is no progress in this regard” since 2013, when the last test was taken. Ecuador is the eighth of 16 countries in terms of understanding what is read.
Salgado says that in reading there is a ‘poverty of learning’ and details that there was an objective: “That By 2030, 60% of 10-year-olds will be able to read, the press say and can understand a short reading ”, details Salgado.
But with the pandemic – what caused the school closings – The possibility of lowering the goal to 50% is being analyzed.
The measurement is made in children of 10 years because it is that age where there are greater effects, to make an intervention and that the minor can correct their reading comprehension.
The solutions?
Only with exact figures can a solution be determined. Salgado believes that it will be necessary to invest in teacher training “for teachers to read.” In addition, analyze the curriculum, to determine how many hours are dedicated to reading and what type of texts are considered for students. “Book clubs are a fabulous mechanism,” adds Salgado.
At home it is also necessary for parents to read to children, to create a taste for reading. “The love of reading is contagious to children.”
Return to classrooms is a priority
María Brown, Minister of Education, explained that one of the country’s priorities is the progressive return to presence. At the moment, 70% of institutions have permission to use their facilities for face-to-face classes. And 1 in four students are attending.
Brown said that educational institutions are safe spaces and he called for an increase in educational continuity plans. (AVV)
En 2020, Ineval encuestó a los docentes de tercero de bachillerato para determinar el avance educativo y hubo áreas donde se avanzó un 50%.
“It is necessary to have these data for the Ministry of Education to carry out the best interventions to improve the impact of the pandemic on education”, Eduardo Salgado, executive director of the National Institute for Educational Evaluation.
La evaluación es con preguntas de opción múltiple.
