Reflections on the digital gap in long-distance education during the COVID-19 pandemic

Abstract

Within the context generated by an event with a global effect such as the current COVID-19 pandemic, it can be asserted that –along with the adequate provision of basic needs for human survival– education is one of the factors of daily life to which the greatest concentration for preserving is dedicated. In this sense, there is a considerable advantage: an alternative methodology to the coexistence of teachers and students in a common physical space, which, although it was not an option for general application, was not completely alien to the average student in a country like Peru. We refer to long-distance education. However, while the immediate benefits of adopting this system, at first glance so accessible, are in fact many, the untimely imposition of long-distance education at all educational levels in the country was not established without challenges or setbacks. The widening of the digital gap –once a relatively passive reality to ignore for those who did not perceive themselves as particularly affected by it– reached new heights with breakneck speed and became a major concern due to its effect on the ability of Peruvian students to continue receiving their instruction under the virtual modality, or, failing that, to make visible in a forceful way the effects of the increasingly acute social inequality that harms the country.