Inequality, connectivity, and the right to education in times of pandemic

Abstract

The starting point of this article is the observation that the COVID-19 pandemic has wide opened the enormous inequalities into Brazilian society and their interrelationships. We understand the Human Rights as historical processes always under construction and in permanent search for fair and decent living conditions for everyone. In this context, we detach the issues related to the right to education. We consider the efforts and struggles of various social groups, particularly since the 1988 Brazilian Constitution, to affirm this right. There have been relevant achievements, but there is still a long way to guarantee quality education to everyone. In the current context of the “emergency remote education”  implementation by many municipal and state education systems, we affirm that guarantee everyone’s right to communication and information technologies,  especially digital media, is strongly needed as a fundamental component of the right to education. However, it is important not to take a merely instrumental view of this issue, often reduced to the use of packages offered by various organizations from a market perspective. It is fundamental considering that the digital culture is increasingly present in different spheres of social life and affects different dimensions of our lives, individually and collectively. It also challenges us, as educators, to understand multiple forms of learning, their possibilities, and limits. The text defends that, beyond the access universalization, it is important to promote digital literacy processes in a continuous, procedural, and systematic way. Both must be oriented to students and teachers to affirm the right to connectivity in a reflexive, critical, and creative educational perspective.