BackHome
Refresh: OffView Personal Schedule
Session Submission Summary

COVID-19 lockdowns: How to reach students during extended school closures

Fri, April 22, 6:00 to 7:30am CDT (6:00 to 7:30am CDT), Pajamas Sessions, VR 138

Group Submission Type: Formal Panel Session

Proposal

Covid-19 has had far reaching effects on the education sector and sector players are increasingly re-thinking engagement strategies that will ensure that all stakeholders more than ever before, join efforts to reverse the effects this has had on children. Studies by UNICEF have established that the devastation resulting from the school closures have affected an estimated 1.58 billion children in more than 180 countries. Therefore, rebuilding the sector requires concerted effort of all stakeholders including parents with whom children have spent the most. The latest statistics indicate that 191 countries have implemented country wide school closures, affecting 1.6 billion learners Worldwide (Education Outlook 2020)

In Uganda, more than 11 million primary and pre-primary primary school learners have been directly impacted by the closures similarly in Kenya. It is further estimated that almost two years into the Covid-19 pandemic, close to half the world’s students are still affected by partial or full school closures, and over 100 million additional children will fall below the minimum proficiency level in reading as a result of the health crisis. Covid-19 has exacerbated the already desperate situation especially in low- and middle-income countries. While the Sustainable Development Goal number 4 sets out to ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote learning opportunities for all, 53% of children in these countries cannot read and understand a simple text by the end of the primary school age. A pre-pandemic study commissioned by Uweza Uganda established that 61% of Ugandan learners from Primary 3 to Primary 7 couldn’t read a simple story and 48% couldn’t perform basic math operations.

The critical role in facilitating home-based learning, that comes with parental and community engagement, has gained more prominence and recognition, and is increasingly attracting the attention of leading sector players. Facilitating home-based learning requires the meaningful involvement of parents and community because the learning process, and the activities that come with it, must involve their support for example supervision, providing tools and an enabling environment for online learning among others (Ribeiro, Kunha et al. 2021). The process of learning does not start and end in a formal school environment, and for it to be meaningful and impactful, it should be extended to the home environment and not merely viewed as a holiday (Barid & Kuswandi, 2020).

The first paper will share a success story in regards to maximizing the use of simple and accessible phone technology and community engagement model to extend learning opportunities during the school shut down. In partnering with a digital technology firm, this program created an innovative at-home learning software that uses interactive voice response technology to provide daily math lessons to learners via household basic mobile phones. After conducting household surveys and finding that a majority of the families served have at least one hand-held phone within the family, the intervention determined the best way to utilize this basic tool to reach learners where they’re at. Their automated calls currently reach thousands of learners a day in four different local languages.

The second paper will share an innovative way to help youth build skills, in a context where full-fledged online learning was not an option. Amidst COVID-19, the partner created a distance learning model based on the proven in-school experience, leveraging simple, accessible technology. The intervention mobilized experiment with a variety of low-tech remote learning pathways, such as radio and simple cell phone technology. Following months of research, rapid experimentation, and iteration, the partner developed best practices of their own and unified effective remote learning strategies into a comprehensive distance learning model. This model includes the same three core components as flagship model — 1) skills lessons, 2) practical experience and mentorship, and 3) assessment of learning — delivered to youth through basic technologies like SMS (text) and phone calls.

The third paper will reveal report from the survey conducted in May 2020 in Tana River County, which is one of the rural and marginalized areas in Kenya. 1,652 households were purposively sampled and assessed to ascertain the level of vulnerability at the households, as well as the opportunities and barriers to continued learning and to recommend the nature of household support required to enhance continued learning. The findings of the survey showed that 87.88% of the households owned a basic phone and only 6% had a smart phone. 23.39% of the households reported to have heard about radio learning programs. 76.7% of the households’ adults could read and write a basic SMS while 10.35% of the households had a television. This paper shares the experience and insights of increasing learning opportunities for learners using low technology.

The fourth and last paper will focus on successful engagement of education stakeholders in the learning of children amidst school closures during Covid-19 which reveals the improvement of learning outcomes and competencies of children in the rural communities. The program is in 12 communities in Northern Uganda where local leaders such as chairpersons Local Council 1 of the 12 communities have an active role in this community based learning initiative.
This also focuses on the important role of village education committees in the learning of children in each community. The program works in 8 primary schools and 90% of community members of nearby targeted schools have increased the availability of learning materials and provided conducive learning environment for children. 12 community groups are supporting some innovative education initiatives which can be replicated in different context. The paper discusses the important of engaging program alumni, and retired teachers to provide learning of children in the communities where 70% of engaged alumni and retired teachers within 6 months are helping more than 1,200 children in 12 communities in Northern Uganda

Sub Unit

Chair

Individual Presentations

Discussant