If necessity is the mother of invention, you might say that adversity is its father. We have been witnessing a good demonstration of this as we continue to adapt to the consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic, particularly in the field of education.
School closures caused by the COVID-19 pandemic have upended education for more than 250 million children and youth in Sub-Saharan Africa. This is in addition to the 97 million children and youth in SSA who, according to UNESCO, were not enrolled in the education system prior to the covid-19 pandemic.
We know that when students are unable to attend school, they face significant challenges, including loss of learning, the risk of dropping out of school, teenage pregnancy or child marriage, and the loss of nutritional support and child protection and safety mechanisms. We have also seen, in a dramatic fashion, that by taking a learning-centric approach and employing education technology to its fullest, students can learn in more flexible ways, anywhere, anytime, alone or in combination with “virtual” teachers.
New communication products are enabling continuous contact between student and teacher. These include SMS messages that students receive on basic mobile phones, smart-phone video tutorials that can be downloaded anywhere at any time, and internet-based question-and-answer testing sessions for learners with real-time feedback from teachers. When done well these education technologies can also ease teachers’ burden, reduce routine administrative tasks to allow more time for teaching, and help teachers identify where students are struggling and provide more targeted support. They can also provide data which can play a key role in understanding education inputs, class sizes, teacher attendance; assess learning progress; and target resources. Read more…
