Adapting learning in the COVID-19 crisis
Early questions on how to deliver education to kids around the world
At the Airbel Impact Lab, we’ve been working on innovative approaches to bring learning to children affected by crisis since 2016 in partnership with our internal education colleagues. In Tanzania, we focused on Social Emotional Learning and play-based learning, and leveraged technology, behavioral science, and entertaining media to reach parents and teachers in Nyarugusu and Mtendeli Refugee Camps. In Bangladesh, we worked with evidence-based software (Kitkit School and Can’t Wait to Learn) to design a program that brings learning to out of school children.
But as COVID-19 spreads and physical distancing goes into effect around the world, children are no longer going to school, losing spaces which previously provided stability and a calm safe environment for learning. There are currently 1.5 billion children out of school as a result of COVID-19. When children leave school, there’s a risk that it will be much harder to bring them back.
We are working with IRC colleagues around the world to re-design education programs with these new constraints, to help kids learn wherever they are, building on lessons learned from both new and long-established IRC projects.
Implementing adaptive learning in Bangladesh
Pop-Up Learning was a successful experiment to bring autonomous learning software to children who otherwise wouldn’t have access to it. In Cox’s Bazar, families don’t have electricity, much less tablets. So over the past year, our efforts were focused on designing the best delivery model to bring evidence-based software to children. We supplied tablets to facilitators every day of the week, who would oversee small groups of children in their home. These facilitators, mostly caregivers and young adults, received light-touch training prior to receiving the tablets, eliminating the need for highly-skilled teachers.
This model, while promising, now poses a multitude of operational challenges. Children can no longer convene in facilitators’ homes where they were learning before, nor can they freely share devices, at the risk of contaminating the tablets. As a result, we’re asking crucial adaptation questions: Should we then give each family a tablet to take home? If so, they will need a power source. How can we continue to provide educational services as supply chains re-focus on bringing in life-saving supplies for the response to the inevitable surge in COVID-19 cases?
The deep uncertainties of this period mean that while it’s important to start thinking about how to continue supporting children in their learning journey and to ensure some sense of continuity for populations already affected by crisis, we also have to balance that with the health priorities and lifesaving interventions. Our efforts to adapt the program will be valuable well beyond the COVID-19 crisis, as this virus forces us to work with more design constraints than ever, helping us come up with even better solutions to reach the last mile learners.
Could mass media bring learning to children in Tanzania?
In Tanzania, schools are similarly shut down, and about 50,000 primary school-age refugees are left without activities for an undetermined period of time. We are brainstorming with teams across the IRC and exploring potential solutions that bring learning over the radio or through mobile chats. Adapting traditional teaching and learning materials into audio format takes time. With any new medium, there is a need to rethink how content is distributed and consumed by users. We can use design methods to devise more engaging content that works for kids at home and their families.
As we think about these new programs, we are grappling with a set of questions that all humanitarians are facing during these challenging times and we must think critically about the value they provide to families. What’s our main goal moving forward? Are we focused on increasing children’s outcomes in literacy, numeracy, and foundational skills? Do we want to share key messages on COVID-19, combining education and health outcomes? Or do we want to focus on children’s wellbeing? Maybe it’s a combination of the above.
In the next few weeks, we will be working hard to support our incredible colleagues in the field as they explore different options for keeping children engaged and healthy during this crisis. Our aim is to leverage our internal capabilities at the Airbel Impact Lab to help create meaningful products that are valued by the communities and that lead to impact.
