Education through WhatsApp is a photography project that aims to make visible the increasing social inequalities regarding access to education in elementary school in Ecuador, its consequences and responses during the COVID 19 emergency.
In Ecuador 4.6 million Children are affected by the closure of schools. In this context, the Department of Education (DOE) has carried on a COVID 19 Education Plan via a virtual platform. The DOE has gathered digital resources, school texts and developed remote- learning protocols for students and teachers. Nevertheless, according to UNICEF only 37% of households in Ecuador have access to the internet. This means that 6 out of 10 children cannot continue their studies. The situation is even more critical for children in rural areas where only 16% of the households have any access to technological devices.
This photographic essay narrates stories of students and teachers of public, private and community schools in Pichincha, Ecuador. School communities are facing a diversity of challenges. Nevertheless, they are looking for alternatives to continue with their education remotely.
About Fluxus Foto
It is a Ecuadorian multidisciplinary collective, made up of visual creators, photographers who seek to make participation and collective work new opportunities and new territories to tell stories of the reality that surrounds us; We come from documentary practice, we complement ourselves with the skills and tools that each of the members can contribute to the development of visual projects, we are in a constant training process, we propose to create a space for dissemination and creation based on the images, we also seek to generate spaces for diffusion and documentary creation so that new visual narrators can develop their stories and create a collective language within the photographic task.
Members:
Vanesa Terán
@v_o.vane
Andrés Yépez
@pre_des_ido
Johis Alarcón
@johis.alarcon
David Diaz
@diaz.arcos
Karen Toro
@karentoroa
Josue Araujo
@la.mala.foto
Ana María Buitrón
@lachuros
Darwin Pizarro
@dpizarroweddings
Carolina Zambrano
@carol.plantasia
Vicho Gaibor
@vichogaibor
Thanks to the support of
National Geographic, COVID-19 Emergency Fund for Journalist 2020. We were able to develop the project Education by WhatsApp where we document from different perspectives the problems of education in the context of the health emergency. We have approached different areas of private, public, rural, alternative, community and self-managed education; all the information that we have gathered in this process and the stories that we had the opportunity to know have questioned us about the education we receive and choose for the future. Our goal is that those with the power to manage public policies know and take into account the diversity of methodologies and ways of life that we have, we are living a moment where we need to question and change how we want to learn to live.