Ministry of Education and Vocational Training and RTVE launch "Let's learn at home' to facilitate student learning during suspension of in situ classes

This is an initiative aimed at pupils aged 6 to 16 that seeks to facilitate learning while schools are closed due to the state of emergency decreed by the government to contain the spread of the coronavirus.

This is special programming for five hours a day of educational content that will be broadcast live in the mornings, from Monday to Friday, on Clan TV and on La 2 of Spanish Television.

This initiative is particularly aimed at pupils of families that are socially vulnerable and thus lack the resources to follow the online activities that are provided by most education centres and teachers. It is also designed for those areas where it is more difficult to get an Internet connection and for those pupils that have problems sharing broadband due to the lockdown conditions.

"The Ministry of Education and Vocational Training is working to not leave anyone out, and so that no pupil fails the academic year due to the exceptional situation we are all undergoing", stressed the minister, Isabel Celaá.

Isabel Celaá reiterated her gratitude to all teachers and reminded pupils of the importance of carrying on studying and making an individual effort during this time. "But it is also essential not to cause more anxiety in families or in pupils than already caused due to the lockdown", she underlined.

To that end, this new programme tries to also cheer up young people and their families with the aim of everyone learning from this situation. Hence, as well as including content related to areas of knowledge, it works to nurture emotional skills to improve the atmosphere at home and make the education process more effective and enjoyable. Each subject area includes content that encourages physical activity, reading, values of solidarity and emotional education while stimulating inquisitiveness, among other goals.

Programming schedule on Clan TV and La 2 of Spanish Television

The RTVE channel Clan TV will broadcast programmes on Monday with maths content, on Tuesday with social sciences, on Wednesday with artistic education and/or physical education, on Thursday with Spanish language and other languages and on Friday with natural sciences. These programmes will be aimed at boys and girls from 6 to 8 years old from 9-10 am, pupils from 8 to 10 from 10-11 am, and pupils from 10 to 12 in the following hour.

In addition, on La 2 of Spanish Television, pupils from 12 to 14 may enjoy content adapted to their age, and in the same order of subject by day of the week as in the previous cases, from 12-1 pm, and those aged from 14 to 16 in the following hour.

Publishers and education portals offer free content

The technical staff at the Ministry of Education and Vocational Training have worked hard to prepare this programme over recent days, in collaboration with 14 publishers and nine education portals, which have offered their services free of charge. These companies are EDEBÉ, EDELVIVES, McGraw-Hill, Planeta, Santillana, MacMillan, SM, ANAYA, BROMERA, BRUÑO, Algaida, Oxford University Press, British Council, Editorial Casals, Pearson, LingoKids, Smile&Learn, Unicoos, Unprofesor.net, Happy Learning, Quantum, Derivando and La cuna de Halicarnaso.

The department run by Isabel Celaá is particularly grateful for this broad response and hopes that there will be other new incorporations in the coming days to enrich the work being done. This is yet another commitment that the whole world of education has been showing during this exceptional situation and for necessary contributions from everyone to overcome this period.

In order to develop these programmes, the Ministry of Education and Vocational Training has formed several work teams that revise and filter the audio-visual material to ensure their pedagogical quality. For its part, RTVE has set up another work group to closely collaborate with the ministerial department.

Other education initiatives for learning at home

As well as this live TV content, the Ministry of Education and Vocational Training has created a web site for the educational community, operational as of Monday, 23 March, to access different resources and tools to facilitate learning in a virtual environment.

The Ministry of Education and Vocational Training has also offered the Virtual Classroom to regional education departments for distance learning (apt for primary, compulsory secondary and advanced secondary education), as well as the materials for the Distance Learning Vocational Training Platform to facilitate online learning for those education cycles affected by the current situation.

Non official translation