The aim of the digital education solution promoted by Fundación Telefónica in collaboration with the “la Caixa” Banking Foundation is to reduce the educational gap and serve as a world reference in educational transformation and innovation. In an interrelated way, it incorporates technology, educational resources and teaching-learning methodologies to prepare and train teachers and students in the skills and competencies required for their future personal and professional development. It is currently operating in Mexico City, Mexico and Guerrero State, and is being rolled out in Aguascalientes, Jalisco, Michoacán, Puebla and San Luis Potosí in order to benefit over 258,000 students, 877 education centres and 11,200 members of the education community nationwide in the 2018-2019 school year.
How to achieve an inclusive and personalised quality education? The ProFuturo Foundation was born in July 2016 with this mission. This Spanish organisation is sponsored by Fundación Telefónica and the “la Caixa” Banking Foundation, who pool their efforts and their acknowledged experience in the field of education to achieve a common goal: that of reducing the education gap in the world by providing a quality digital education for children in vulnerable environments in Latin America, Sub-Saharan Africa and Asia.
The initiative promoted by the two organisations has given rise to a digital education solution, including the Aula Digital (digital classroom) project which, in an interrelated way, incorporates technology, educational resources, teaching-learning methodologies and training for teachers and students that allow the acquisition of skills. It involves all the educational agents: head teachers, teachers, students, families, authorities and institutions, and provides equipment that is unique in its kind and can be adapted to any environment, both with and without connectivity.
One aspect that sets this project apart is that the learning is personalised to each student and monitored by means of random controls (monitoring tools and impact methodology) to measure the real effect of the operation and its progress.
Its deployment began in Africa in 2016 and it is gradually being expanded; the programme is currently active in 23 countries. It was adopted in Mexico in late 2017.
Telefónica and its foundation aspire to be an example of innovation and diversity, and to leverage the opportunities offered by information technologies to provide access to universal quality education through new educational methodologies and 21st-century skills in numerous languages and with an interactive format. Its aim is also to support teachers in their training and endow them with the tools to enable them to complement and improve their skills and achieve a new experience for their students in the classroom.
