Effects of the pandemic on the educational trajectory of children and adolescents: lessons from Chiapas, Mexico

Abstract

The Mexican government suspended school activities at all educational levels as a measure to mitigate the transmission of the SARS-CoV2 virus. Since March of 2020, it implemented a distance education modality through the use of information and communication technologies. As of February 2021, this measure was still in force. In a state like Chiapas, where a high percentage of the population lives in poverty and access to and use of technologies is limited, it is relevant to analyze with a differentiated approach to identify how such measures affect the educational trajectories of children and adolescents in conditions of greater inequality. The study analyzes the information from a telephone consultation with children and adolescents from 8 to 17 years of age Tsotsiles, Tsetales, and Mestizos from the city of San Cristóbal de las Casas, Chiapas, Mexico, carried out in March 2020. It delves into the characteristics of their homes, access to services, and the use of information technologies to recover their perceptions and concerns about their school trajectories. Their voices reveal the effects that a measure such as the one implemented by the Mexican government has on their right to education and its interdependence with other rights such as food, physical and mental health, and access to information.