The Use of Digital Data Collection to Improve Education Programming in Fragile Contexts

• In Event: Bridging the Divide – Using Digital Tools/Platforms to Implement Data Driven Educational Programming

Proposal

As digital technologies become more prevalent globally, the education sector is increasingly using digital tools to collect and analyse data aimed at improving, understanding and personalising learning for children. In emergency contexts, data collection and analysis are crucial to ensuring that education programmes are evidence-based and are improving children’s learning outcomes and psychosocial wellbeing. The effective use of digital technologies for data collection and visualisation not only enhances our understanding of the programme impacts but also drives continuous improvement in educational practices.

Concern’s non-formal education programme in Northeast Syria, which has been running since 2018, uses this effective approach to digital data collection. The principal objective of the programme is to help children catch up and reintegrate into formal schools in a grade appropriate to their age, including equipping them with the capacities, attitudes, knowledge, behaviours and confidence that will help them succeed in school and beyond. The programme is funded by the Directorate-General for European Civil Protection and Civil Aid Operations (ECHO). The non-formal education centres offer two programmes: a six-month accelerated learning programme (ALP) for 8-13 year olds and a nine-month adolescent groups (AG) activity for 14-17 year olds. Both programmes offer basic literacy and numeracy (BLN) combined with social-emotional learning (SEL).

Concern uses tools such as Tangerine and iFormBuilder Digital Data Gathering (DDG) for assessments, surveys, registration, attendance of caregivers and reintegration. To evaluate the impact of the programme on students’ learning outcomes, Concern uses the Early Grade Reading Assessments (EGRA) and Early Grade Mathematics Assessments (EGMA) and to evaluate the impact of the programme on students’ psychosocial wellbeing, Concern uses the Social Emotional Response and Information Scenarios (SERAIS) assessments. The data is collected by trained enumerators to ensure safe and ethical data collection as well as additional considerations are in place for conducting digital assessments in fragile settings. By using Zoho Analytics for data visualisation, trends and patterns in the data become more apparent, facilitating in-depth analysis and rapid, informed decision-making.

The presentation will outline the data collection process in fragile contexts, using Tangerine for EGRA and EGMA and iFormBuilder DDG for SERAIS. It will also present the visualisation of the data collected from October 2023 to September 2024 as well as improvement over time in Northeast Syria. Additionally, the presentation will detail the recommendations derived from the data, showing how these insights have influenced the programme’s direction and adaptation. This includes changes and improvements in teacher training, strategies for engaging donors and broader impacts and recommendations to the education sector in Northeast Syria. By examining trends and recommendations, the presentation will highlight how data-driven decisions contribute to refining education interventions and enhancing their effectiveness in humanitarian contexts.

Authors

• Paul Tonkei, Concern Worldwide

• Amy Folan, Concern Worldwide