Brazil and COVID-19: Challenges of Remote Education in Basic Education

With the unexpected occurrence of the global pandemic of COVID-19, new educational methodologies ¹ had to be implemented quickly to continue the pedagogical teaching to students. There are some important aspects to be considered by future teachers in order to understand all this necessary adaptation, which will certainly be marked by a good time in the profession as a teacher from now on. In this text, the importance of the effort that the teacher is facing in the emergency care plan for students both, in the public and in the private network will be highlighted. In the public network, the methodology used is based on the distribution of printed materials ^{2, 3} to students through the school (at alternative times to avoid crowding) and a digital platform (however, not all students have access to this technology). In the private network, the situation is better, as students have greater purchasing power / financial income and technological knowledge, making use of digital platforms with ease, sharing tasks / activities and participating in live classes, by weekly video conference. Clearly the support of the private network is much better than that received by the public network. In view of the limitations that already exist in the profile of public school students (before the pandemic), we can highlight a survey conducted by IBGE (in 2017) that shows the profile of households with internet: the southeast region has a better access index, but the other regions has extreme deficiency in this regard: the reasons for people not having access are due to the lack of purchase of devices (cell phone / computer), value of internet access and / or not knowing how to use the device / technology (what we call digital illiteracy). In the research, the equipment considered most used is the cell phone, however the biggest problem is the restriction of use due to the lack of memory to download the applications, memory capacity for the files of the classes and internet plans for video conference ⁴. We must consider that, before the pandemic, the country has suffered for a long time from social inequality (reflected in the profile of students in the public / private network); these real problems that we always face reflect the high illiteracy rate (among people aged 15 and over) of 6.5% - data from 2015, compared with data from 2017, which showed a percentage of 7%, that is, the country failed to reach the literacy goal (the north and northeast regions are the most affected). Unfortunately, the moment touches on the inequality that has always been ignored and is now very visible ⁵. A second challenge to be addressed is the teaching work, as the entire learning process is developed by the teacher. In a classroom, all work of conducting learning is done by the teacher and, sometimes, accompanied by some families. At this time (of the pandemic), the teacher hardly has the students' face-to-face perception in the virtual room ⁶, where it is necessary for families to interfere and assume an intermediary role to help students, however many students face difficulties because they have parents who are not literate, due to the historical problem of education that has not arisen now and is surfacing ⁷. With the COVID-19 pandemic, an early adaptation of pedagogical work was necessary. Most teachers consider themselves to be involved in a series of bureaucratizations because they have to do several “new” activities in addition to those that were done, such as communication through countless emails and messages, which makes the teacher's work tiring, affecting the pedagogical development. Usually the teaching work already has a home extension, with lesson planning, test corrections and assignments, as well as daily research for the preparation of classes. Currently, with remote education, the demand is being considered much higher, with excess of reports and planning of classes and video conferences, which affect the workload, leading some teachers to frustration. For most teachers, it was necessary to adapt the entire planning process to digital form, with a lot of effort, in order to try to have positive results. The Brazilian teacher was not trained to develop practices that benefit and solve the current problem (they were only trained to work in classrooms) and this makes this situation very challenging. Every usual schedule must be reformulated, taking into account the current situation, but some teachers are reaching exhaustion due to frustration or a feeling of unproductiveness due to the self-charge generated. With the innovation and implementation of technology in most sectors, even before the pandemic, the teaching professional or any other professional needs to strive to improve their training, with recycling of knowledge to always be up to date. In the case of the pandemic, the teacher needs to demonstrate quick and adaptive attitudes, but because he does not have an immediate and favorable return on the part of the students or is unable to maintain an affective bond, it leads to a feeling of exhaustion, causing an impact on the mental health of some teachers. Nowadays with the pandemic, it is necessary to highlight that the methodology that is being developed with remote education is not about home schooling (“home schooling”) because, teachers continue to be responsible for all pedagogical work. We must consider that, despite this entire situation, there is a positive point, as the teaching professional is learning many things (teaching involves learning). It is believed that these new resources acquired and learned today, will be very important for our new “normal” tomorrow, as it will probably enrich classroom classes and pedagogical work as a whole. However, the recognition of the effort of the teaching professional by the students and their families is essential to stimulate the continuous effort of the teacher. There are no right and definitive answers for the current period, but there is a supernatural effort that has been made by teachers from public and private schools to maintain teaching for students. Unfortunately, due to historical issues that already exist in Brazil, it is not possible for all students to have the same assistance and quality ⁴; what is expected is that when it returns to “normal”, the situation that emerges may reflect to the destruction of inequality. The text seeks to clearly show the challenges of teaching practice in the current pandemic and ends with the following sentence: “A teacher makes a difference and always be that teacher”: in the teaching position it is important to highlight that, in addition to the theoretical training we must have, we have to have the resourcefulness to adapt to different situations, such as the one we are experiencing, like any other that may come, with different consequences. The human being itself must learn to be flexible and adapt in the best way and always seek better conditions for both work and survival. Regardless of the situation, the professional must be versatile and serene to be able to adapt and make the process flow in the best way, whatever the difficulty.

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