TECHNOLOGY TO EMPOWER ACTORS ACROSS THE LEARNING ECOSYSTEM

School closures due to the COVID-19 pandemic have highlighted the need for different actors, including those outside of the school, to play a role in children’s education. This study examines whether a technology-aided intervention can empower actors to better guide children’s learning.

While school enrolment in low- and middle-income countries such as Pakistan has risen over the last few decades, learning outcomes remain low. COVID-19 induced school closures have further worsened learning outcomes and undoubtedly increased learning inequality as well. Technology, widely used during the pandemic, has potential to help children to both recover lost learning and learn more effectively in general. However, thus far, while technology has massively increased productivity in other sectors and government services in the developed world, it has not done the same for education.

This study uses a randomised control trial to understand how using technology to empower various actors in a child’s education ecosystem can help improve learning outcomes.

 Specifically, we use a systems thinking model to consider the constraints faced by both home-based and school-based actors, and examine whether information, guidance, and a change in monitoring structures can empower these actors to help provide children with more personalised learning and overall improved learning outcomes.

Our treatment population includes children in grades 2-4 in public schools in the Islamabad Capital Territory (ICT). These include formal public schools as well as non-formal community schools under the supervision of the Federal Directorate of Education (FDE) and the Basic Education Community Schools (BECS), respectively, which are affiliated with the Federal Ministry of Education. We work with all estimated 568 schools, among which 327 are formal public schools and 241 are non-formal schools that cater to students from the lowest socioeconomic backgrounds in the region.

Additionally, in ICT, both schools and parents are well equipped to benefit from this study. They have adequate access to technology (e.g. schools and households have access to at least one device), and parents are willing to use technology (text and Whatsapp messages) to hear about their children’s progress in school and how to help them improve.