Building data & evidence on the inclusion of refugees in digital learning programming

Group Submission Type: Formal Panel Session

Proposal

As the whole world turned to digitally supported education to provide continuous learning opportunities during COVID-19 pandemic and beyond, the vast majority of forcibly displaced learners, and their host communities, were left out. Refugee-hosting schools and communities are simply not equipped with digital resources, skills, and knowledge needed to foster learner who can succeed in an increasingly digital world. Based on UNHCR’s estimate, 78 per cent of all school-age refugee learners have had limited-to-no access to learning opportunities during school closure, which exacerbated pre-existing inequities prior to COVID-19.
The pandemic has seen digital learning solutions rapidly scaled up and deployed worldwide to mitigate learning losses during school closures, however refugees were largely left out from global and national investment and initiatives due to the policy and budget constraint, limited level of infrastructure, and availability of technology and connectivity, which prevented most refugee learners and their host communities from meaningful access to these resources. Moreover, despite the efforts made by international agencies, NGO, private sector and government, there is very limited evidence on the access to digital learning programmes as well as learning outcomes during this period. The lack of evidence inhibits our ability to guide the policy, programming and planning process.
In order to adequately understand the scale of participation and digital learning outcomes for refugee learners, it is critical to bring actors together to build a robust data and evidence base on digital learning for refugees and ensure refugees are meaningfully included into national digital learning initiatives and programmes. This panel will aim to demonstrate the existing efforts in tracking digital learning programmes among refugees at global and country level and provide space for reflections, discussion and collaborations to strengthen M&E and build robust evidence. At the macro level, the panel will cover national level efforts to monitor digital learning interventions. At the micro level, the panel will provide insights from user and classroom level data from two digital learning interventions – INS (UNHCR) and Learning Passport (UNICEF).

Sub Unit

• Monitoring and Evaluation SIG

Chair

• Haogen Yao, UNICEF

Individual Presentations

• Presentation 1: Monitoring and Evaluation of Digital Learning Interventions amongst Refugees in Uganda: A tale of missed opportunities - Patrick Walugembe, UNICEF

• Presentation 3: Tracking digital learning from Learning Passport - Pragya Dewan, UNICEF

Discussant

• Cirenia Chavez Villegas, UNHCR