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Exploring digital technologies to enhance the inclusion of out-of-school children

Tue, March 25, 2:45 to 4:00pm, Palmer House, Clark 7

Group Submission Type: Formal Panel Session

Proposal

The global number of out-of-school children and youth (OOSCY) is predicted by UNESCO (2023) to have risen by six million since 2021. Factors such as poverty, conflict, gender inequality, and displacement, compounded by environmental disasters, have left many children out of school. Existing research focuses on identifying the barriers to inclusion for out-of-school children, which often include socio-economic disparity and lack of proximity to available schools. However, there is limited evidence about what kind of approaches policy-makers and implementers may leverage to enhance the inclusion of out-of-school children, the extent to which technology can facilitate these efforts, and how technology can be leveraged in ways that do not exacerbate digital divides (Thinley & Rui, 2023). To respond to these persistent gaps, we propose to present key findings from two studies, both conducted in different parts of the Asian continent. Through these studies, we offer answers to the following two questions: 1) To what extent can digital technologies be used to enhance the inclusion of out-of-school children across Asia and 2) Which of the findings from the Asian context may be applied to out-of-school contexts more generally?

These three papers share mixed-methods research approaches that amplify the voices of out-of-school children and their caregivers or teachers so that these voices can inform policy and programme design decisions. The first paper, Learning continuity in response to climate emergencies (Mazari et al., 2024) explores the insights of flood-affected parents and teachers to understand the extent to which it is feasible to use technology to support learning continuity in response to Pakistan’s 2022 floods. The second paper, Enhancing inclusion for minority students (Hayat et al., forthcoming) unpacks the importance of combining evidence with participatory approaches to determine the very role technology can play to enhance the quality of education for minority students at a border school situated near the Thai-Myanmar border. The third paper, Rapid scoping study on out-of-school children and youth (OOSCY) in South-East Asia (Barnes et al., forthcoming) offers a cross-regional comparison of out-of school experiences and efforts to increase access to and quality of education through interviews and surveys with policymakers, teachers, caregivers and out-of-school children and youth themselves. OOSCY numbers and situational variables vary widely across Southeast Asia, with relatively low levels of OOSCY in countries such as Singapore compared to other countries such as Laos, and thus the paper highlights a range of challenges and good practices being adopted in contrasting contexts.
Together, these three papers highlight the importance of user-centred programme design processes and continuous engagement across national and global education systems.

These papers aim to inform both policy and practice, but were developed in response to different demands. The first paper, the Pakistan floods research, was developed in response to the critical community needs of the 2022 floods that left one-third of the country submerged in floodwater and destroyed almost 26,000 schools, leaving the most vulnerable at risk of falling deeper into poverty and further behind in education (⇡World Bank, 2022; ⇡ESWG, 2022). As a result of the floods, it was predicted that (at minimum) an additional one million children could drop out of school and that learning poverty could increase from 75% to 79% (⇡Barón et al., 2022). Although EdTech was not used as an immediate flood response at scale in response to Pakistan’s floods, the research informed the Government’s National Distance Education Strategy’s access plan for emergencies. The second paper responded to a request from the Southeast Asia Ministers of Education Office (SEAMEO)’s Tropical Medicine (Tropmed) centre in Thailand. The empirical research was used to inform decisions around EdTech design to enhance the quality of education for migrant children from Myanmar in consideration of challenges related to teacher turnover. The third paper, the scoping study on OOSCY in Southeast Asia, responded to the need to understand the situation of OOSCY in the region, particularly after the pandemic, building on the commitments articulated in the ASEAN Declaration on Strengthening Education for OOSCY. The paper aims to inform policymakers from Southeast Asian countries about which policies and programmes, including those that leverage technology, can best support education access and quality for OOSCY. This is also in response to the scarcity of up-to-date data and the recognition of new factors such as advancements in educational technology, globalisation, and climate change that may influence school dropout and non-enrollment rates.

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