24.4 million children benefited and 1.1 million teachers trained in 40 countries in Latin America, the Caribbean, Africa and Asia. It is the feat and success of ProFuturo in its six years of existence. A journey that begins on July 14, 2016, when the president of Fundación Telefónica, César Alierta, and the president of ”la Caixa” Foundation, Isidro Fainé, signed a strategic alliance for the joint development of an ambitious project: facilitating digital education of quality in the most vulnerable environments in the world to promote equal opportunities for all children.
"Technology and educational innovation allow us to respond to the needs of the most remote schools, of teachers with more difficulties in teaching and of students with more barriers to going to class and learning," says Magdalena Brier, general director of ProFuture.
On the occasion of its sixth anniversary, Fundación Telefónica and Fundación ”la Caixa” have released new evidence and findings on the effects of ProFuturo's intervention in the communities where it operates. More specifically, in 9,300 educational centers in places as diverse as the Amazon rainforest in Brazil, the southern and eastern provinces of Sierra Leone, or the informal settlements of Syrian refugees in the Bekaa Valley in Lebanon.
A set of evaluations and research carried out in different countries in recent years show that the digital education program contributes, among other aspects, to reducing absenteeism and school dropout, improving the digital skills of children and teachers, increasing the motivation to go to school and even increase the commitment of families with the education of their children. They are examples of the transforming power that digital education has in the most vulnerable environments.
“We are proud to see how our program is reaping the fruits of the work carried out in these six years of experience. Every sign of improvement achieved in educational quality and in children's future prospects drives us to continue working so that digital education reaches further and more people”, celebrates the general director of ProFuturo.
A 2021 report in the Philippines by the Ayala Foundation reveals that 92% of students say they have a more positive outlook on life after participating in the program. Already in Angola, another study concludes that delays in the arrival of students to school have been reduced, which reflects that ProFuturo's resources are an important incentive for children's learning.
The digital education program of Fundación Telefónica and Fundación ”la Caixa” also has its effects on the learning process. In this field, research points to an improvement in technological and digital skills in reading, arithmetic and self-learning skills. A study carried out in Ecuador indicates a direct relationship between children's interest in literacy and the use of the tablet provided by the program. This leads to the conclusion that the insertion of technology, under certain conditions, is a motivational factor for learning in this competence and in others such as arithmetic, creativity or oral expression, according to findings collected in Guatemala.
There is also evidence that ProFuturo increases the commitment of parents and guardians to their children's education. This is demonstrated by a qualitative study commissioned in 2021 from the Carlos III University of Madrid to measure the impact of the digital education program in Zimbabwe. This collects testimonies from families who recognize the benefits that the program has brought to their lives. Among them, that it has brought about positive changes in family dynamics, when the children themselves begin to help their elders in the use of digital tools, for example, or when adults realize the importance of their children developing technological skills. so as not to be left behind compared to the rest of society.
In turn, findings have been found regarding the improvement of teaching skills and the transformation of pedagogical practices. Teachers surveyed in Angola claim to have a greater degree of familiarity with technology. And in Brazil, a greater willingness to continue training professionally has been observed.
ProFuturo does not stop in its process of transformation and innovation. That is why, when he turns six years old, he has completed the design and definition of his new technological solution: a new learning management system or LMS (Learning Management System) that is available in open source and includes the most avant-garde components of education digital.
Through this platform, the program makes more than 160 courses and 2,800 hours of training available in different languages and free of charge to teachers and students. Among these resources, ProFuturo Mathematics stands out, a recently launched open application that, based on artificial intelligence, promotes the development of mathematical competence in children between 8 and 12 years of age.
The program is also advancing in the application of data analytics to its entire digital ecosystem. A strategic line of work for its new monitoring and evaluation system, which began to be implemented in 2021 with the aim of perfecting the monitoring of the digital education program in each intervention context and being able to make decisions for improvement.
