Learning continuity in response to Pakistan's 2022 floods

• In Event: Exploring digital technologies to enhance the inclusion of out-of-school children

Proposal

Much of what we know about using EdTech to support learning continuity by increasing access to education is based on lessons learned during Covid-19. As this research shows, it is not possible to simply apply these lessons into programming in response to climate emergencies. It was estimated that (at minimum) an additional one million children could drop out of school and that learning poverty could increase from 75% to 79% as a result of Pakistan’s 2022 floods (⇡Barón et al., 2022). With Pakistan investing heavily in EdTech to increase access to and the quality of education, we explored the extent to which EdTech has the potential to improve access to and quality of education through the various phases of response to the floods — in a feasible way with attention to scalability. This paper provides a case-study on the feasible and scalable use of EdTech in response to climate emergencies in four different phases: the relief phase during an emergency, the recovery phase immediately afterwards, the remedy phase, and the preparedness phase. Overall, it highlights the importance of community-centred approaches and the value of consultation with key partners to refine these approaches.

Through the insights of 88 flood-affected parents and teachers (interviewed in October 2022 and January 2023), Education Officers, development partners, and international experts in education in emergencies, we found that:
1. Despite substantial investment in distance learning modalities prior to the floods, there were gaps in parental awareness about distance learning options, teachers’ pedagogical skills and levels of comfort with technology, access challenges created by poverty, unequal infrastructure (across provinces and between urban and rural localities), which could have impacted the feasibility and scalability of distance learning modalities.
2. During the different phases of response to the emergency, communities’ needs and infrastructural realities keep changing. However, existing responses to support learning have not been able to address these needs at scale. We find that the most significant barrier to learning continuity is lack of information and coordination. Even where schools reopened, teachers felt insufficiently supported to address students’ varying needs and were not offered the curricular flexibility to do so.
3. To support learning continuity in any future climate emergencies, we recommend investing in communication and coordination mechanisms and the development of a central database, which can identify linguistically and contextually appropriate content on teaching, learning, and psychosocial support that is shareable via devices to which communities have access. Access to learning continuity is also a barrier if programmes do not align with the needs of working children (for example, if scheduling clashes with harvest season in farming communities).

Authors

• Haani Mazari, EdTech Hub

• Imdad Ali Baloch, International Education Policy Department, University of Maryland, College Park

• Sangay Lhazom Thinley, EdTech Hub

• Kate Radford, EdTech Hub

• Freya Perry, UK - Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office