Connecting Classrooms, Communities, and Futures in Chile
At Montaña de Copihues School, located in the rural commune of Cobquecura in Chile’s Ñuble Region, connecting to the internet was, until recently, almost impossible. Although the school is not far from the communal center, the community lived in an area with no effective coverage. In practice, being relatively close to town did not mean being connected.
For years, no company provided a stable signal in the area. For students, families and teachers, this meant facing a gap that went far beyond technology. It meant not being able to easily access educational information, lacking digital tools to support lessons, being unable to communicate in a timely way with relatives, and facing greater difficulties in accessing basic services.
At Montaña de Copihues School in Chile's Ñuble Region, connectivity is helping teachers bring new ideas, resources, and opportunities into the classroom. Photo UN Chile.
Óscar Torres, the teacher in charge of the school, knows this reality well. He has worked at Montaña de Copihues School for around ten years and remembers that, before the arrival of internet access, preparing a class with digital resources could become a long and complex process.
“We are in a black spot. No company, from anywhere, provides us with an internet signal,” he says. “Before, I had to go down with a USB drive to wherever there was a signal, search for the material and then come back. That could take at least seven days. Education became very asynchronous.”
That week-long wait to access a video, a guide, an image or updated content shaped the educational experience. While students in other places could search for information online, resolve doubts in real time or complement their learning with digital resources, at Montaña de Copihues School access to knowledge depended on the possibility of traveling to a place with connectivity.
Connecting Classrooms, Communities, and Futures in Chile
This began to change with the arrival of Connected Communities, an initiative led by the United Nations System in Chile and the Regional Government of Ñuble, with funding from the Joint Sustainable Development Goals Fund — Joint SDG Fund. Through the project, an antenna was installed to bring connectivity to the school and open new educational, social and community opportunities.
For Óscar, the impact was immediate and profound. Connectivity not only made it easier to access teaching materials; it also transformed the way children relate to learning.
“Connected Communities came to help improve the quality of education, making it more precise, more real, so that children are no longer so separated from what is happening in their society,” he explains. “With this, children can manage their own learning, develop their autonomy and become interconnected.”
Connectivity has made classes more dynamic, up-to-date and closer to students’ realities. Today, a question that arises in the classroom can immediately become a search. A doubt can open a conversation. An educational video can complement an explanation. Content in English, science or history can be available at the very moment it is needed.
Caption: A student explores new learning opportunities at Montaña de Copihues School, where reliable internet access is helping bring the world closer to rural classrooms. Photo: UN Chile
Ángel Espinoza, a student at Montaña de Copihues School, describes the change from his own experience. Before, he says, studying with the support of the internet was very difficult. “It was very hard to search for videos without internet,” he recalls. “Now we have good internet thanks to the antenna they installed for us. We can watch videos that teach us and search for the things we are curious about, so we can keep doing our homework.”
His testimony reflects one of the most important changes that connectivity can bring: the possibility for children to move from receiving limited information to exploring, asking questions, researching and building knowledge with greater autonomy. For a rural school, that transformation can be decisive.
The Connected Communities programme aims to reduce the digital divide in lagging rural territories by providing internet access, digital skills training, stronger telehealth services, access to public services, and support for local productive development. In the Ñuble Region, the initiative has already surpassed its initial target of 25 connectivity points and is now entering a new stage focused on training so communities can fully use connectivity in education, health, productivity and local development.
At Montaña de Copihues School, this new stage is already reflected in daily life. For families, the internet is not only a school tool. It is also a way to communicate, access information and better support their children’s education.
Isadora Torres, a parent at the school, says her daughter can now study, research and explore new interests from school and at home. “Before, she couldn’t check things online. Now she works with the computer or phone, searches for what she wants to see, things in English, what she wants to know, and then she does her homework,” she says.
In this sense, connectivity expands learning opportunities beyond the classroom. It allows students to reinforce content, spark curiosity, access new languages and bring rural students closer to tools that, in other contexts, are considered a normal part of the educational process.
But the project’s impact is not limited to students. In a community where communicating through WhatsApp or making a video call was previously almost impossible, the school has become a meeting point and a place of connection. The open signal allows parents and neighbours to communicate with relatives, access information and solve everyday needs.
“The school has become like a lighthouse,” says Óscar Torres. “Because the signal is open to parents, they can communicate. Imagine being able to call an ambulance or know how a distant relative is doing through a video call. Before, that was not possible; now it is. The impact on the community has been very significant.”
That image of the school as a lighthouse captures the broader meaning of Connected Communities. In rural territories, an antenna does not only provide internet access. It also strengthens ties, reduces isolation, improves the ability to respond to emergencies and brings services closer to communities that had long been left behind.
The initiative is part of a joint effort by the United Nations System in Chile to accelerate progress towards the Sustainable Development Goals from the territories. Connected Communities brings together the work of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), the Pan American Health Organization/World Health Organization (PAHO/WHO), UN Women, the International Telecommunication Union (ITU), and the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC).
Each agency contributes its experience and capacities, from digital connectivity and public policy to rural development, gender equality, health, productive inclusion and technological transformation. This integrated approach makes it possible to address the digital divide not only as an infrastructure challenge, but also as an opportunity to expand rights, strengthen local capacities and create new conditions for development.
The programme also promotes educational, technological and leadership opportunities so that girls and women can develop their talents, strengthen their confidence and become protagonists of a fairer, more inclusive and sustainable future. In rural communities such as Copihues, this is especially relevant: internet access can open new paths for learning, entrepreneurship, participation and autonomy.
The experience of Montaña de Copihues School shows that connectivity can be an entry point for multiple transformations. A class can improve. A student can research in English. A child can resolve a doubt online. A family can communicate with a loved one. A community can have a tool to ask for help in an emergency.
In Cobquecura, where access to information once depended on a USB drive and a trip to a place with signal, the school is now connected. And with it, so is its community.
The antenna installed by Connected Communities changed much more than the quality of the signal. It opened a window to knowledge, strengthened the school’s role as a community hub, and brought children and families closer to new opportunities.
At Montaña de Copihues School, connectivity is no longer a distant promise. Today, it is a concrete tool for learning, communicating, participating and building a more inclusive future from the territory.
Note:
All joint programmes of the Joint SDG Fund are led by UN Resident Coordinators and implemented by the agencies, funds, and programmes of the United Nations development system. With sincere appreciation for the contributions from the European Union and Governments of Belgium, Denmark, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, Monaco, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, the Republic of Korea, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, and the Arab Gulf Programme for Development for a transformative movement towards achieving the SDGs by 2030.
