The future of education, digital and democratic?

Inoma, a social organization, works so that education in Mexico is fun, free, and very similar for rich and poor.

It might sound utopian, but we could be on the verge of an era where the basic education received by the child of a billionaire and the child of an indigenous person is very similar, much like Facebook and Google, which are equal for both. This is thanks to a visionary NGO called Inoma and its free digital educational games called Tak-tak-tak. Antonio Purón founded this organization after collaborating as a director emeritus at McKinsey & Company for Mexico, a firm he worked with for over 26 years. Upon retiring, he sought to contribute to society, and education was an area where he could truly make an impact. It all began after observing the Enlace test in 2006, Antonio comments: "It allowed us to make comparisons, and it was interesting to see that only 3% of public schools exceeded the average score of private schools. This highlighted an educational system where the children of those who can afford and choose to pay for private education had greater advantages than the children of the 92% of the population attending public schools, deepening the social inequality in our country. Therefore, we sought to create an educational alternative for girls and boys that would allow them to learn with free digital games, leveraging children's inclination to play and compete, and harnessing the enormous force of digital technological advancement."

Sara Medina, Marketing Coordinator, comments: "I have always loved academic research; however, it is a dream to practically help the most disadvantaged; it gives me hope and makes me feel more human by being part of a better community." At the beginning, programmers, digital designers, pedagogues, and psychologists joined forces to create their first games as prototypes, measuring results and gradually improving, achieving a fun, free, 24/7 available education that adapts to the child's progress and, most interestingly, covers the SEP program. Additionally, they launched the LabTak tool to involve teachers, parents, school directors, and the school system to provide them with real-time information on children's education progress and thus contribute to its improvement.

These digital games have served as a great complement to education, as they have managed to increase an average of 40 points in the Enlace test, equivalent to going from a bad teacher to a good one. In addition to teaching the SEP program, this social organization seeks to teach music, personal finance, art, values, among others. Although currently only 57.4% of the Mexican population has internet access (INEGI 2015), this will increase significantly in the coming years according to Moore's law, allowing us to have increasingly better and cheaper devices.

Nowadays, there are already tablets for $80 and smartphones for up to $50 that will further decrease their prices in a few years, increasing internet access and allowing more people at the base of the pyramid to benefit, enabling them to entertain and educate themselves through a smartphone or a tablet. This tells us that in the coming years, education will undergo a wonderful revolution through these technologies that will democratize education, making it fun, free, and democratic for both the rich and the poor. After 6 years of operation, Inoma has more than 216,000 enrolled children, with an average usage of over 20 minutes per session, and its games have been played by children from virtually all over the world. They have already conducted tests with the SEP of the state of Puebla, and in 2016 they started a trial program with the SEP of Mexico City, which could indicate a national program to transform our country's education in the near future.

The interesting thing is that while the SEP spends an average of $2,000 per child per year, with the Tak-tak-tak platform, the organization achieves it with costs of around $3 per child per year, which will continue to decrease as Moore's law advances and as more children enroll, as they expect to have a million children using this system by 2017. Something that Antonio and his team have learned is that these tools must add to the effort made by the educational system, being a tool that complements the efforts of executives, teachers, and parents to improve educational quality. Undoubtedly, Mexico's greatest natural resource is the talent of all our children and young people, who with good education could produce great prosperity for the country. Furthermore, in the information age, education is an abundant good that never ends, which should serve to provide equal opportunities to the children of the humblest and the wealthiest. If you are interested in supporting this GREAT social organization, you can do so at inoma.mx.