Can’t Wait to Learn: Learnings About Engaging Local Government

• In Event: Problematizing the “Digital Society”: The Digital Education Divide in Crisis Contexts

Proposal

The use of technology in education has increasingly been adopted by governments to support education policy priorities and the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals (UNESCO, 2023). In low-resources settings, the potential of digital personalized learning (DPL) programmes lies in their capacity to support children and youth’s access, inclusion, and quality of education in contexts where teachers face challenges such as large class sizes, mixed learning levels, and limited professional development support (Major et al., 2021). In conflict-affected contexts, DPL programmes offer an opportunity for continuation of learning amid displacement, damaged physical infrastructure and, in the case of refugee populations, entry into new education systems (Tauson & Stannard, 2018; Winthrop & Kirk, 2008). However, key challenges related to the digital divide and program sustainability in crisis contexts remain pervasive. As such, governmental adoption is the strategic goal of many humanitarian and development DPL programs. While there are successful examples, such as onebillion’s onetab program and War Child’s Can’t Wait to Learn (CWTL) program in Ukraine, there is no roadmap to achieving governmental adoption or achieving digital equity in crisis contexts.
Government partnership is a cornerstone of the CWTL and a key entry point into new country contexts. CWTL is a DPL programme developed by the War Child Alliance and partners, first designed in 2012 in rural Sudan to support access to curriculum-aligned, competency-appropriate, and self-paced education for internally displaced communities. The program has subsequently expanded to Lebanon, Jordan, Uganda, Chad, South Sudan, and Ukraine. Considerable research and evidence demonstrates the program’s contextual appropriateness and feasibility in diverse resource-constrained and unstable settings, and its effectiveness in improving literacy and numeracy learning outcomes (Brown et al., 2020; de Hoop et al., 2022; Turner et al., 2022). In Uganda, a fully-powered cluster randomized controlled trial in the Isingiro District demonstrated the effectiveness of CWTL in accelerating learning gains when embedded into government schools, compared to education as usual (Turner et al., under review). This encouraging evidence has led to adoption of CWTL by the District Local Government of Isingiro, following a one year research-informed transition of management and implementation responsibilities.
This paper will share the extensive learnings generated by this process in Uganda, as well as reflect on experiences of government partnership in other countries. It will also unpick the tensions between effective, evidence-based, and equitable DPL programme design, scale-up, and integration into national education systems. Finally, we will share learnings about aligning DPL programming with multiple policy priorities, system needs, and local conceptualizations of what developing a “digital society” means.

Authors

• Marwa Zahr, War Child

• Luke Stannard