Ensuring education continuity: efficiency of tablet learning approaches in an insecure context

• In Event: Evidence and learning from education programming during crises

Proposal

Context
Since 2016 Burkina Faso has been subject to many army groups attacks in many areas of the central North region where the program highlighted in this proposal is being implemented. More than 500 schools of the program are closed and students displaced toward more secure localities. Between these regions, there is an area where the insecurity situation is likely unstable: the schools are wobbling between opening days and sudden closures. Subsequently, the students’ learning is regularly hampered. Almost 80 % of learning time is disrupted by weapons noises and both students and teachers flowing to their houses. The government has designed an action plan which takes into account this situation waving between secure days and insecure ones. This action plan is based on the tablet use for learning literacy and numeracy. It engaged some pilots which never concluded because of lack of resources. In this vein of accompanying the government, CRS conducted a full process of tablet learning to assess what could be the right approaches and to feed government knowledge. This paper will present the results of CRS’s pilot study and discuss how the learning from the study can be utilized to inform future programming.
Background
The role of tablets in the learning process: According to pedagogy experts , passive teaching can't entirely replace active one. In the insecurity context, many approaches are used to reach out to students who have been prevented from attending in-person schooling. The most commonly used approach is distance learning through radio and television broadcasting. Students listen alone or under their parents’ surveillance but seldom have the possibility to interact with the speakers. The learning possibility is from this type of interaction is low. Tablet learning seems to offer more opportunities in terms of access to knowledge and interaction to learn. In terms of access, the student has the possibility to learn when he wants, to review the same learning several times, to re-listen ongoing learning; and on other hand, tablet has an asset for the student.
The interaction with tablet: he can repeat when learning sounds, he can write the learned sounds, he can listen to a story, he can play with words... these are very keys activities for learning.
The tablets also offer the opportunity to learn under adult surveillance. In the target area, people are still residing with their children. Teachers have sometimes the possibility to work with students as well as community facilitators can do so. As a result, tablet learning offers a flexible modality that can be used at home, in the community, and in school.
Research question
CRS has implemented both in-school learning and in-community learning approaches to determine:
What could be the best approach of tablet learning which feat well with the unstable learning situation due to insecurity and is fruitful in terms of learning for students?

Approaches description
Commutatively, CRS experienced both approaches during the school year. When the schools are opened, teachers work according to their timetable to ensure tablet learning; and when schools are closed because of attacks and during the week end, community facilitators take the relay.
In-school learning approach: CRS worked with the government to include tablet learning in the whole teaching timesheet of each classroom. Forty minutes are consecrated more than twice times per week for tablet learning;
In-community learning: two sub-approaches are used. The first one is the use of a "homeowner-based model" to monitor groups of three-five students using tablet to learn. A mapping has been done to organize students geographically to meet and use the tablet; The second is the organization of learning groups of 30 students per grade and targeting students with weak learning level. These groups are overseen by the community facilitators. Each community facilitator is in charge of overseeing three groups of students either 90. He works rotative manner with the three groups.
Research Methodology
A learning agenda has been drafted collaboratively with the technicians of Ministry of Education and CRS education team.
Sampling
A pre-pilot has been conducted in a sample of two schools in an unstable area: one school in urban area and the second school in rural area.
Each school has at least 300 students from grade 1 up to grade 6.
Six teachers and their headteachers, two fields monitors, and 11 community facilitators have been involved.
The project provided 100 tablets with accessories to schools and solar panels for charging.
Data collection methodology
The program worked on two ways to collect data to appreciate which approaches fit well to this context:
* Quantitative method/ uploading data from the tablets: students must use tablet for 40 minutes per learning session and periodically the field agent uploads data from the utilization of the tablets.
* Qualitative method / collecting data with tools through interview and observations: Five field monitors have been collecting data with main actors: teachers, students, parents and community facilitators.
Brief description of findings
As mentioned above, CRS wants to provide practical responses for future programming and particularly to feed the lack of information for the government.
Based on the pre-pilot outcomes, for areas with insecurity, the community based models (i.e. group-based community model and home-owner community model) would be preferred, for the following reasons (predictable usage of tablets, comfort and safety for the students, charging mechanisms simpler , etc.)

Author

• Fenot Kanazoe, Catholic Relief Services