Learning Through Broadcast: Enhancing Girls’ Education In Grades 7-10 Through Multimedia Distance Education In Afghanistan

Group Submission Type: Formal Panel Session

Proposal

Overall Session Description:

In August 2021, the Taliban took over Afghanistan and banned girls' secondary education. Despite widespread international condemnation, Taliban have thus far refused to lift the ban, leading to millions of middle and high school girls to be deprived of education. The ban came at the end of two decades of significant gains in education during the previous government (2001-2021), especially for girls, where, for example, girls enrollment in school soared from 100,000 in 2000 to 3.8 million in 2019. However, with the Taliban’s ban on girls’ education, employment, and mobility outside home, Afghanistan is now ranked the lowest in the World Economic Forum’s Global Gender Gap Report (2022).

Urgent and innovative education solutions are needed with millions already out of school, millions more girls banned, a teacher and classroom shortage, and poor learning outcomes for those in school.

New York University’s International Education and Politics Departments have partnered with a media company on designing and assessing science education (i.e., chemistry, biology, physics, and mathematics) through a multi-model, multi-platform distance education program for students in grades 7-10 in Afghanistan. This initiative involves a science show, a televised science classroom, interactive learning platforms (e.g., web-based learning, application, and SMS), and community engagement and educators’ support.

Our media partner uses a network of linear satellite, terrestrial, and cable; web and social media; and a no-fee streaming platform–similar to Netflix. Its radio and television platforms reach a significant market share in Afghanistan.

Although it is clear that current broadcast services reach millions of Afghans daily, this study aims to understand who accesses the educational services and how effective they are. Through a dynamic partnership between a university and a media company, we seek to answer these questions through a rigorous, mixed methods randomized controlled trial (RCT) and complementary qualitative data collection.

This panel shares critical aspects of the design and development of distance education science programming and their outcomes in resource-constrained settings. It includes four presentations:

Presentation #1:
Pre-Design Phase: The Importance of Engagement with Local Educators, Experts, Implementers, Teachers, and Students

Presentation #2:
Content Versus Medium: Two Indispensable Yet Distinctly Specialized Components of Multimedia Education

Presentations #3 and #4
Randomized Controlled Trials of Multimedia Education: A Multimedia Science Education Impact Evaluation in Afghanistan

Sub Unit

• Education in Conflict and Emergencies SIG

Chair

• Dana Burde, New York University

Individual Presentations

• Pre-Design Phase: The Importance of Engagement with Local Educators, Experts, Implementers, Teachers, and Students - Mohammad Jawed Nazari, New York University; Dana Burde, New York University; Heddy Lahmann, New York University; Abdul Hamid Hatsaandh, New York University

• Content Versus Medium: Two Indispensable Yet Distinctly Specialized Components of Multimedia Education - Abdul Hamid Hatsaandh, New York University; Farzanah Darwish, Graduate School of Education, University of Pennsylvania; Heddy Lahmann, New York University; Dana Burde, New York University; Mohammad Jawed Nazari, New York University; Rena Deitz, New York University

• Randomized Controlled Trials of Multimedia Education: A Multimedia Science Education Impact Evaluation in Afghanistan - Dana Burde, New York University; Heddy Lahmann, New York University; Abdul Hamid Hatsaandh, New York University; Mohammad Jawed Nazari, New York University