Deploying virtual assessments for Early Years in Global South settings during COVID-19

• In Event: ECD measurment and assessment: Student, classroom, and home-based measures

Proposal

The disruptive effects of COVID-19 have already been registered and recognized across the globe. This is particularly the situation for early years where children in Global South countries like Pakistan have been at risk of learning losses. Official early years schooling in such contexts involves more than just academics—it is also a place for childcare, enabling environments, and child development. Therefore, school closures due to COVID-19 have led to major learning and development risks for children in early years. Moreover, lockdown and social distancing have made impact assessment much more difficult just when it was imperative.

Given these dynamics, our study titled “Assessing Early Years Schooling, Access and Student Outcomes (AESAS)”, supported by the British Academy and Durham University, deploys the IDELA tool for early years to examine the school readiness of children between the ages of 3.5 and 8 years old in the Punjab province of Pakistan. It is a longitudinal study spread across a period of 12 months. While the research was initially designed and piloted for administering face-to-face assessment of children, it was adapted and transformed into a virtual survey undertaken through mobile video calls.

AESAS is amongst the first of its kind in deploying a globally applied early years learning tool for virtual assessment. The study itself highlights the feasibility of virtual surveys for assessing child development and learning in early years. Findings from the assessment bring forth some unique insights for child learning outcomes during COVID-19, for both in-school and out-of-school children. Within domains of early years learning—numeracy, literacy, language, socio-emotional etc.—there are wide differences in learning situation. Children in general have done well with numeracy while lacking in other areas. Moreover, the long-term effects of COVID-19 on child learning and development outcomes will be further empirically understood in the second stage of the study.

In this paper, we intend to bring together these two themes—virtual early years assessment and child learning outcomes—and discuss them within the context of COVID-19 to understand ways in which a productive approach can be undertaken for early years in a post COVID era.

Author

• Nadia Siddiqui, Durham University