Unlocking the potential of Quality EdTech to support Learning at Home

Group Submission Type: Formal Panel Session

Proposal

Perspective:
The global learning crisis encompasses two alarming realities: 7.8 million primary-school aged children are out of school, according to UNESCO, while hundreds of millions of children around the world are not learning despite being in school. It is estimated that 262 million children will complete primary education without attaining minimum proficiency levels in reading. Children around the world face extreme learning poverty, with 9 in 10 children in sub-saharan Africa unable to read with comprehension by age 10 (Africa Report, 2022), and 6 out of 10 children in India unable to read a grade 3 level text in grade 5 (ASER, 2022). In addition to poor learning outcomes, systemic issues are prevalent in a majority of educational systems, for example India faces a shortfall of nearly 1.1 million teachers and struggles with poor retention as children move to higher grades (UNESCO, 2021). These challenges have been greatly exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic, with school closures around the world leading to large amounts of learning loss.

However the pandemic did lead to catalytic growth, disruption and innovation in the EdTech space, riding on the wave of increased digital access and burgeoning supply of products in the market. For example, smartphone penetration in rural India increased from 36.5% in 2018 to 67.6% in 2021 (ASER, 2021). Coupled with this increase in access, COVID also spurred an army of caregivers at home to take part in their children’s education as never seen before, with parents and community playing a pivotal role. Data suggests that in India, 70% of children now receive learning support from different household members including parents, siblings and grandparents (CSF, 2023). The pandemic also gave rise to multiple novel ways of delivering EdTech at home, positively impacting traditional teaching-learning practices. These innovations can be categorized into those that support teachers (with lesson delivery, lesson preparation, assigning homework and undertaking assessments), those that support children with self-learning and doubt resolution) and those that support parents (encourage parental participation) (CSF, 2021).

We see three emerging trends in the EdTech ecosystem for low income households post the pandemic. The first being that there is increased awareness amongst low-income families that technology can be used for learning, with a recent survey by Central Square Foundation showing that 86% of parents and guardians showed awareness around using EdTech as a means of learning. Alongside increase in parental awareness, there is increased demand from governments to engage with EdTech; for example, in 2022, over 24 state governments in India expressed interest in including some form of EdTech in over 98,000 schools committing to spend over USD 470mn (Ministry of Education, India, 2022). In addition, there is emerging evidence globally that EdTech used at home can be helpful in improving learning income for children from low income families.

By selecting evidence-informed approaches and by focusing relentlessly on impactful implementation, policymakers and educators can take substantial strides to seamlessly extend learning from the classroom to homes helping our children practice, remediate, doubt solve at home in addition to receiving instruction in school. Business as usual may not be an option anymore.

Objective:
The objective of this panel is to highlight evidence-informed approaches on the power of technology to eliminate the borders and walls of the classroom, so that every child has access to high-quality education at-home. The panel, consisting of researchers and practitioners from around the world, will discuss the insights from and the impact of different EdTech solutions and interventions that were used by children at home across India, Kenya, Nepal, Philippines and Uganda. By fostering an exchange of learning from EdTech research spanning many countries, this session will inform audiences about how to build more robust solutions for children, the impact of interventions that were implemented at home and the path forward.

Format:

Introduction and context setting, highlighting the importance of technology for learning at home including learnings from the Bharat Survey of EdTech, a household level survey across 6000 low income households highlighting access, usage and perceptions around EdTech, Gouri Gupta, Director EdTech, Central Square Foundation - (Chair and Discussant)

Research presentations:

Presentation 1: Play to Learn - Improving Foundational Learning with Technology Aided Formative Teaching, Prof Kartini Shastry (joint work with Prof Sheetal Sekhri, University of Virginia, Dr Ramiro Burga, Wellesley College, and Dr. Divya Pandey, 3ie)

Presentation 2: Raising Readers: Parental engagement and effectiveness of a reading app in Kenya, Susan Nicolai (joint work with Amina Khan)

Presentation 3:Building Resilient Education Systems: Evidence from Large-Scale Randomized Trials in Five Countries, Moitshepi Matsheng (joint work with Amanda Beatty, Colin Crossley, Karen Clune and Thato Letsomo, Noam Angrist)

Discussion on the need to identify quality products for interventions, the way forward including the use of AI, Asyia Kazmi, Global Lead Policy, Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation (Discussant).

Relevance to conference theme:
With the theme of the conference being, ‘The Power of Protest’, all organizations on the panel will showcase highly relevant work that protests the inequity and inequality present in education systems around the world. By presenting findings from India, Kenya, Nepal, Philippines and Uganda, the panel hopes to draw insights from low-income contexts and showcase how technology can be used to improve learning outcomes in marginalized communities.

Sub-theme 3 on ‘Theories, Methodologies and Protest’, asks what theoretical resources we might use to understand this protest, how we research it, and how we can decolonise it. This panel looks at these questions intimately by showcasing evidence, as well as the theories the evidence is based on, from low-income countries. This research is an attempt to look at EdTech through the lens of developing nations and understand how it can be democratized to support learning in differing contexts. Similarly sub-theme 4 on ‘Pedagogies and Protest’, asks what pedagogies we might use to enable the development of capacities to act. The panel hopes to address this question through research that highlights EdTech pedagogies which have shown impact in building the capacity of young children to learn and interact with education meaningfully.

Sub Unit

• General Pool

Chair

• Gouri Gupta, Central Square Foundation

Individual Presentations

• Raising Readers: Parental engagement and effectiveness of a reading app in Kenya - Susan Nicolai, Save the Children; Amina Khan, UNESCO-ODI-EDTech Hub (Consultant)

• Play to Learn - Improving Foundational Learning with Technology Aided Formative Teaching - Sheetal Sekhri, University of Virginia

Discussant

• Noam Angrist, Youth Impact; What Works Hub for Global Education, University of Oxford