During 2020 education underwent significant changes due to the abrupt interruption of face-to-face instruction around the world due to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. This study presents a comparison of parent’s perspectives in Paraguay during two periods, at the beginning and at the end of the school year. A sample of 505 parents participated in the first phase, and 202 in the second phase. Data were collected through online questionnaires in both phases. The results show that parents were forced to purchase electronic devices, mainly computers, to respond to certain school activities, despite the economic recession of the pandemic moment. WhatsApp played a very important role at the beginning of remote classes, both to maintain communication and/or send academic assignments. However, by the end of 2020 the use of digital educational platforms was widespread as reported by parents. Support of school activities was carried out by mothers for the most part. Difficulties evidenced include the comprehension of tasks, motivation and the internet connectivity, which increased. significantly throughout the year. A majority of parents expressed satisfaction with the implementation of ICT in remote education, and the main reason noted was the fear of sending children to schools in-person.

During the years 2020 and 2021, global education was significantly impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic. The sudden change in educational modality caused the different actors to adapt at breakneck speed and with the often-limited resources available to them. The present study aims to show and analyze the educational changes that have occurred during the last two years in Paraguay through the statements collected from three actors directly involved in the teaching-learning process: teachers, high school and university students, and parents of school-age children from different parts of the country. The data collection was carried out in three different phases: Mar-May 2020, Nov-Dec 2020 and Nov-Dec 2021. The results show significant changes in terms of access to technological tools such as computers and internet and demonstrate high proportions of actors who used WhatsApp and educational platforms as the main channels of communication and sending homework. In addition, they highlight the reading of materials and worksheets as those activities mostly proposed during the two years. The results also revealed significant difficulties related to internet connectivity, lack of understanding of tasks, motivational aspects, and lack of time for adequate dedication to the activities proposed. Nevertheless, several stakeholders highlighted that the educational modality implemented was of interest to them due to certain advantages that could be taken advantage of and improved in a normal educational system.

Cómo referenciar este artículo/ How to reference this article Mereles, J. I. y Canese, V. (2022). Dificultades docentes durante la educación remota en Paraguay. Revista científica en ciencias sociales, 4(1), 8-22. RESUMENEste estudio con enfoque mixto analiza las dificultades experimentadas por los docentes durante la educación remota en Paraguay en el 2020. Se incluyeron docentes activos residentes en el país con participación voluntaria; 1329 docentes para la investigación cuantitativa y 40 para la cualitativa. La recolección de datos se realizó en dos momentos; la primera (1030 docentes) en marzo-abril y la segunda (299 docentes) en noviembre-diciembre, mediante un cuestionario online en Google Form de 37 preguntas. Además, se realizaron tres entrevistas grupales (8, 12 y 20 docentes) al término del año lectivo 2020 mediante Google Meet. Los datos cuantitativos se analizaron con JASP, prueba chi cuadrada, regresión logística binaria y logit y, los datos cualitativos con QDA Miner Lite. Las dificultades más frecuentes encontradas por los docentes en la primera fase fueron: mala conexión a internet (49%), falta de conocimiento en el uso de las TIC (36,5%), falta de soporte técnico (22,3%) y falta de acceso a las TIC (21,3%). En la segunda fase solo se evidenció aumento significativo (p<0,001) de mala conexión a internet (71,5%). Varias dificultades fueron identificadas por las docentes más relacionadas al aspecto tecnológico que a problemas de materiales e institucionales.