Fighting learning poverty in Malawi through effective EdTech during C-19
Learning Poverty
Being able to read is an enabler for all children, a gateway to the rest of their education. The World Bank says 89% of children in poor countries cannot read by age 10. Collectively, we are failing these children — they are in learning poverty. Conventional approaches say we should train more teachers, but we need 69 million of them. They say we should train them better, improve curricula and invest in school infrastructure and resources. But there is a picture emerging that we aren’t making a sizeable dent on learning poverty.
Effective EdTech
At onebillion, we believe effective educational technology (EdTech) is a viable strategy for fighting learning poverty. We believe effective EdTech combines:
- software that enables independent learning and efficiently delivers significant learning gains for the child. Connectivity should not be a prerequisite.
- where there is no hardware — robust, low-cost devices that can be repaired (and even assembled) locally.
- the ‘human element’ — support if necessary from schools, teachers, parents and community institutions for effective implementation.
- implementations that are tailored to the local context, be it in-school or in the home, supported by a mixture of public and private sector financing.
At onebillion, we have been building the foundations of just such an effective EdTech solution:
- our onecourse app teaches a child to become numerate and a confident reader in their own language. It adapts to the child’s level and features thousands of interactive activities. Research shows that children who use onecourse — in high- and low-income countries, in and out of school, male and female — make significant learning gains. onecourse jointly won the Elon Musk $15 million Global Learning XPRIZE in 2019.
- our onetab tablet, dedicated to learning and requiring minimal setup. Running onecourse, onetab is low-cost, robust and designed to last.
Effective EdTech is inherently scalable, but the barriers of inequitable access can only be addressed by a blend of political willing and market-based delivery approaches.
In Malawi, we have been working with the Ministry of Education, donors and NGOs to deliver effective EdTech through the public school system. The Unlocking Talent initiative is now in its second phase, expanding to 300 Government schools and giving regular access to onecourse for 300,000 Malawian children.
COVID-19
Then the world turned upside down. As of writing, there are over a billion children who have been out of school as a result of COVID-19. The consequences have been profound and localised school closures are likely to be a reality for some time to come. As ever, it is the most marginalised children who suffer the greatest impact. In richer countries, many children already have digital devices in the home and access to remote-learning resources. In poor countries, this is not the case and governments and parents alike have struggled.
In Malawi, the focus has been on providing distance learning through technologies such as radio and TV. But these are less than ideal — they aren’t interactive, nor are they tailored to the needs of individual children. So the Malawian Ministry of Education has been working with onebillion and VSO on a new distance learning programme, delivered on tablets direct to the home.
A community learning initiative
The premise was simple. 700 households in two villages in Lilongwe, Malawi were offered onetab so their children could learn from home. We wanted to help the Government answer these questions:
- Is tablet-based learning in the home an effective and scalable implementation model for Malawi?
- How can we improve the effectiveness and scalability of the initiative through sensible yet rapid changes as it progresses?
The response from the community was overwhelmingly positive. As of August 2020, every single one of the 700 households now has onetab in their home, meaning over 2000 children will have access to effective EdTech. Our partner organisation VSO Malawi have been responsible for surveying, sensitisation and distribution of devices, empowering local community leaders and out-of-work teachers to support families in the initiative.
Sensitisation was carried out in small groups, observing social-distancing and the wearing of protective equipment. Parents and caregivers were shown what onetab was, how to operate it and ensure their children had access if they wanted to use it. This minimal scaffolding was deliberate as onetab has almost no learning curve, even for those who are digitally illiterate.
Thanks to a partnership with Airtel Malawi, every onetab has connectivity for secure — and anonymous — monitoring of how it is being used. This data, combined with household behavioural surveys and action-based research will help us answer both of the Government’s questions. The lessons we learn are vital as they plan to expand the initiative to another 5000 rural households that cannot be reached by either TV or radio broadcast.
At onebillion, we strongly believe that the voice of the child must be heard. Over the coming months, we’ll be sharing a series of articles detailing the expectations, experiences, challenges and successes of the children and families using onetab, so please follow us for updates.
onetab around the world
The community learning initiative in Malawi is one of many deployments of onetab around the world. In Tanzania, we are working with the IRC to bring high quality digital learning to the homes of last mile learners affected by COVID-19. In the US, we’ve partnered with Open Up Resources to get onetab to marginalised children across the country.
For more detailed information about onetab, the child’s experience and the pedagogical approach of onecourse, we encourage you to download our digital handbook.
Please talk to us if you are keen to get onetab to children who need it. Together we must fight learning poverty.
