The dilemma of virtuality in education: the case of Ecuador

Abstract

This paper analyzed the Ecuadorian educational model in the context of the pandemic, making a comparison between the 2019 presential classes and the virtual system carried out since may 2020. The analysis focuses on the description of the gaps that the virtual system has expanded; a quantitative methodology has been considered which has incorporated the database of Instituto Nacional de Estadística y Censos (inec), Ministerio de Educación and the World Bank (wb). This research suggests that the emergence of online learning has widened the gap between rural and urban sectors in terms of learning, coverage, and permanence of students in institutions private and public, exacerbating this problem
in the last one. Taking into account the context prior to the pandemic, it has shown that Ecuador was not prepared to assume a virtual modality, as the main one, while the data released during the pandemic have shown that Ecuador has a deficiency to generate structural public policies in the medium and long term due to the lack of statistical data on the subject.