DGTVE (Educational Television Management Division) is a centralized institution, part of the Secretaría de Educación Pública’s (SEP-Ministry of Public Education) Planning and Evaluation of Educational Policies Unit. It was created to support and strengthen the development of education in Mexico and to offer new audiovisual alternatives for teaching, focusing on solutions for the less developed areas of the country that have poor educational facilities.

Some of the main functions of DGTVE are:

• To produce, program and broadcast educational material using Televisión Educativa’s satellite broadcasting facilities and new uses of ICTs, to systematize and preserve our audiovisual heritage.
• To prepare professionals in electronic media production for educational purposes and,
• To research and develop new alternatives for technologically mediated education, among others.

After almost fifty years of activities, DGTVE has been transformed to support education in Mexico. It has an important technical infrastructure and a professional communication team that has placed DGTVE as a pioneer in the area of Long Distance Education and a paradigm in Latin America.

Mission

To present conditions that allow each individual the full extent of his Educational Rights by means of Information and Communications Technology (ICT), offering teaching services for remote and difficult access regions that have poor and backward educational systems and for society in general.  These conditions are based on the principles of educational justice and equity. They are confined to the consolidation, expansion and modernization of a technological infrastructure and ICT designs based on educational paradigms, in conjunction with production, distribution and systematization of educational material (audiovisual and web production) as a support for education.

Vision

DGTVE vision for 2025 considers a maximum use of ICTs to bring quality and equal education to those remotes zones in the country. For that purpose, it plans the update of existing equipment and infrastructure, the expansion and diversification of the broadcast signal, the development of new pedagogic models appropriate to the ICTs’ use in education, to qualify specialists for the use audiovisual material and to count on support material to offer society opportunities for development based on respect for legality and the exercise of Human Rights.

Objectives

DGTVE’s main objective is to contribute to the obliteration of backward educational systems in the country.

For that purpose, DGTVE is using satellite TV as a main tool. By means of RED EDUSAT, its broadcast services have been expanded in terms of quality and quantity. These purposes are based on the guidelines of the Plan Nacional de Educacion (National Education Plan) 2007-2012 and the Programa Sectorial de Educacion (Sectorial Education Program).

EDUSAT’s compressed digital broadcast system, is the most important of its type in Latin America. It broadcasts on 16 television channels daily, nine of them managed directly by DGTVE. Seven of these channels (11, 12, 14, 17, 21, 22 and 24) include their own programming and two other channels (26 and 27) include special video transmissions. The Latin American Institute for Educational Communication (ILCE) is in charge of channels 13, 15, 16 and 18. The National Council for Culture and Arts (CONACULTA) uses channel 23. And channels 25 and 28 are the Congress Channel and TV UNAM respectively.  EDUSAT also broadcasts on three radio channels: Radio Educación (channel 12), IMER (channel 15) y Radio UNAM (channel 28).

The main tasks by which DGTVE accomplishes its objectives are:

• EDUSAT’s operation, which embraces programming and broadcasting of educational material for TV. It includes operation and maintenance of the satellite.
• Audiovisual production and the creation of educational programs and series, in accordance to different public teaching needs.
• Conservation and systematization of our cultural heritage.
• Qualification of professionals related to media.
• Audiovisual investigation and development.
• Experience, information and the interchange of materials with organisms and institutions that participate in the educational process through audiovisual media, as with television chains in several areas in the country.