Formative Research to inform the Future Design of an Inclusive and Cost-effective EdTech component within Malawi’s flagship EdTech Programme, BEFIT

• In Event: Roundtable Group 10
  In Refereed Roundtable Session: Pathways to Equity in Foundational Learning: What can we learn from comparing cases

Proposal

Despite expanding access to education worldwide, children are not learning effectively. This reality is particularly true and perverse in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA), where lack of qualified teachers, striking rates of out-of-school children, high pupil-to-teacher ratios, limited access to learning materials and infrastructure, an outdated curriculum, and teacher/student absenteeism impede the provision of quality learning. With the scale-up of the tablet-based literacy and numeracy programme: the Building Education Foundations through Innovation and Technology (BEFIT) by the Malawian Government, the above markers of learning inequity promise to be cleared, starting from the year 2023, ensuring by age 10 primary school-age children in Malawi have acquired basic reading and numerical foundations.

However, many children risk being socially excluded, at least by not experiencing BEFIT directly like their peers, through this child-directed, adaptive learning software ‘onecourse.’ The 2018/19 Education Sector Performance Report indicates that students with special needs make up 3.3 percent of enrollments in primary schools in Malawi. Furthermore, the 2018 Malawian Population and Housing Census of the National Statistical Office estimates that approximately 10.4 percent of the Malawian population aged five years and older had special needs and that 16 percent of these had intellectual difficulties. This is a critical mass of children that face the risk of not meaningfully developing the capacities required to participate in national development. Through the software manufacturer ‘onebillion, the BEFIT program is progressively working on an inclusive and assistive technology alternative to ensure these children who join and are in primary school get the same quality learning as their peers.

Unlike the BEFIT tablets’ (onetab) cost-effectiveness, any educational technology that intends to meet the needs of learners with special needs will require resources that LMICs like Malawi lack. Therefore, this inquiry investigates low-cost technological alternatives that BEFIT can leverage to provide the same content (Literacy and Numeracy) to Malawian learners with disabilities. The study will conduct qualitative formative research on 500 schools in the YR1 of BEFIT implementation: Sept– July 2024. The study will complete in-depth interviews and surveys of stakeholders (school heads, teachers, educational officers, parents, and NGOs). The following sub-question will be posed to unpack the main research question.

RQ1. What kinds of EdTech are being used to support the learning of children and young people with disabilities in Malawian primary schools, especially for BEFIT classes 1-4?

This inquiry aligns with the Ministry of Education’s goal of equitable access to educational opportunities, resources, and facilities for students with special learning needs. While the MoE scales BEFIT programme into Malawian primary schools, fundamental issues of equity and inclusion for all remain. Therefore, meeting the needs of these learners with disability means uniform access to foundational literacy and numeracy (FLN) skills across all primary school-going children by age 10. The study findings will be used to inform the design of a future inclusive edtech component for supporting learners with disabilities in Malawi.

Author

• Jimmie Chengo Odhiambo, Graduate School of Education, University of Pennsylvania