Governance measures for technological and digital platforms and devices in Mexico must be supported by comprehensive literacy, monitoring and evaluation processes, as well as by identifying the cases in which technology can be key to inclusion.
This was stated by UNESCO Representative in Mexico, Andrés Morales, at the opening of the South-Central Regional Forum “La vida frente a la pantalla” (Life in front of the screen), the sixth in the series of forums led by Mexico’s Ministry of Public Education (SEP).
Andrés Morales highlighted the agreement to regulate the use of mobile devices in schools reached by the SEP and the National Council of Education Authorities (Conaedu), particularly for its differentiated approach by educational level and age. He added that it could be expanded to include the use of technology for educational inclusion to address two central issues: that technology contributes to guaranteeing the right to education, and that it is pedagogically relevant and ethically responsible.
Various international instruments, such as the Incheon Declaration and UNESCO’s 2023 Global Education Monitoring Report, have pointed to the opportunities technology offers for access to education and for learning, while addressing risk reduction. For example, as tools to support students with disabilities or learning barriers, those who are unable to attend school regularly due to different circumstances, or even to develop digital options for teaching in Indigenous languages.
Processes of technological adaptation are not entirely new: telesecundarias (televised junior-high schools) have helped increase access to education in Mexico through an early screen: television. They have formed the backbone of education in 60% of state schools, and each additional telesecundaria per 1,000 adolescents translated into an average increase of 0.2 years of schooling.
The UNESCO Representative stated that the Organization will continue to support the SEP and Mexico in this process, which, in addition to specific guidelines, must be backed by digital, algorithmic, media and information literacy (MIL) processes, so that society as a whole can better understand how technologies and platforms work and what their impacts are.
While 58% of countries worldwide have some form of national regulation on mobile phone use in schools (114 education systems), only 43% (84 of 194 countries) have integrated elements of Media and Information Literacy (MIL), as defined by UNESCO, into formal national curricula, and only 17 countries have developed substantive, stand-alone and far-reaching MIL policies.
Moreover, although 29% (56 countries) have incorporated some elements of MIL into their national curricula, they have limited this integration exclusively to digital literacy. This constrains the response to global challenges such as the fact that 85% of citizens worldwide are concerned about the impact of online disinformation. In Latin America and the Caribbean, only 13 of 33 countries have integrated MIL elements into their curricula.
