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Hunger / HDI | Education
Education

Education

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What's Inside

Kindly click here, here and here to access the key findings of the report titled Locked Out: Emergency Report on School Education (released on 6th September, 2021).

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In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, schools across the country, as in many parts of the world, were closed in mid-March impacting approximately 286 million students (48 percent girls) from pre-primary to upper secondary education. This is in addition to the more than 6 million children (48 percent girls) who were already out of school prior to the COVID-19 crisis.

During school closures, measures were taken by Ministry of Education (MoE) and the National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT) from the national level; by Governments in states and union territories (UTs) to implement programmes to support distance/ home-based learning for children by varying degree of teacher interaction and follow-up and by parents. Different means, including television, radio, online platforms and paper-based materials, have been used to provide distance/ homebased learning. These efforts have also been supported by civil society organizations and other agencies including UNICEF.

While these strategies and initiatives aim to ensure continued learning for all children, there is a lack of clear evidence of the extent to which children, particularly from the most marginalized groups, are able to access learning from home and the modalities and means that are the most effective in reaching them. Globally, data show that, in general, the poorest and most marginalized children are missing out on schooling compared to their counterparts.

In this context UNICEF undertook a rapid assessment to fill the data and evidence gaps, to gain an understanding of which interventions may be most effective in supporting distance/ home-based learning of children, particularly from the most marginalized groups, during school closures. The report titled 'Rapid assessment of learning during school closures in the context of COVID-19' would be able to inform states to better prepare the education system to ensure continued learning of children moving forward and in case of future crises. 

This rapid assessment has been conducted by Dalberg Advisors. The purpose of this study is to assess the perceived impact on student learning due to school closures during the COVID-19 pandemic, and ways to better support student learning now and once the schools re-open. The study strives to identify the needs of parents, students and teachers for continued learning, current barriers to access along with effectiveness of solutions, and successful innovations across states and various other actors. This study attempts to take a holistic lens by including the voices of the marginalized populations, such as migrants and students with disabilities, while highlighting best practices for states to leverage both during the lockdown, and over the long term. 

The evaluation, conducted between August and September 2020, is timely given the rapid deployment of remote learning solutions, and the surge of diverse innovations from which state governments can derive lessons or best practices to deepen their efforts. 

Tto draw a holistic picture, providing both data-driven evidence for policymakers, and bringing out the nuanced experiences of individuals. The study leverages five sources of data: telephonic surveys of parents, adolescents and teachers; in-depth telephone interviews with parents, adolescents and teachers; expert interviews; secondary research; and an online youth survey. The study was conducted in six states: Assam, Bihar, Gujarat, Kerala, Madhya Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh. The states were chosen to capture voices from areas that are geographically diverse, experience different levels of COVID burden, and have varying educational capacity. 

The key findings of the report titled Rapid assessment of learning during school closures in the context of COVID-19 (released in May, 2021) by UNICEF India Country Office, are as follows (please click here to access):  

• Despite government, private and civil society actors coming together to roll out a wide range of remote learning resources, students are falling behind during the physical closure of schools since March 2020, due to the COVID-19 pandemic. During the lockdown, students have been studying on average three to four hours a day. However, parents, students and teachers believe that learning and overall progress (including social and cultural skills, fitness, etc.) slowed down considerably. Only 60 percent of students have used any remote learning resources; and even among those, nearly 80 percent report that they are learning less or significantly less than in school. The study suggests that there are various reasons behind this. 

• Digital channels are not as accessible as often perceived. Ten (10) percent of students overall do not have access to any of the following devices – smartphone, feature phone, television (TV), radio, or laptop/computer with significant variation between states. More than 10 percent of students do not have access to mobile phones within or outside of their households.

• Even when students have access to devices, awareness around using them for remote learning maybe low. Of the respondents who did not use any remote learning opportunities, 45 percent of them report not being aware of any resources from which to learn. Television (TV) and feature phones are particularly underutilised for learning.

• Fewer girls, younger students, rural students and government school students use high-tech tools. Use of WhatsApp and YouTube when compared for different categories; girl's usage was 8 percent lower than that of boys; usage by younger students (5-13-year-old) was 16 percent lower than that of older students (13-18-year-old); rural students' usage was 15 percent lower compared to urban students and for students of class 1 to 5, government school students' usage was 10 percent lower compared to students from private schools. 

• Availability of key offline resources, textbooks and teachers remain far from universal. Despite many states distributing textbooks for the new academic year, nearly one in three parents still ask for support with textbooks and other learning materials. Nearly 30-40 percent of students are not in touch with their teachers, though this varies significantly by state. A smaller proportion of younger students and rural students are in touch with their teachers.

• Remote learning resources are generally perceived to be less effective than in-school teaching. Other than home visits, more than half of teachers surveyed perceive remote learning materials and methods to be less effective than classroom teaching.

• Poor mental health holds students back. About a third of elementary students (as perceived by their parents) and nearly half of secondary students feel that their mental and socio-emotional health has been poor or very poor since May 2020. 

• Students from migrant and scheduled tribes (ST) families face more challenges. While students from migrant and ST families use remote learning resources at similar levels to their peers, when parents were asked if their children were learning as much as before the pandemic, 15 percent more migrant parents and 9 percent more ST parents reported that their children were learning less now. Parents of children from migrant families (60 percent) and from ST families (53 percent) rated their children's mental and socio-emotional well-being as poor or very poor compared to the status reported for the overall sample. 

There are some bright spots. Certain states and schools have mitigated some of the impacts of school closures. 

• While students in private schools mostly used WhatsApp, private tuition and live video classes, their government school peers mostly used textbooks, teacher home visits and YouTube for learning, so that there were no major differences in overall usage levels.

• Over half of the students who used remote learning did so across multiple resources. WhatsApp is the most used tool by students and teachers alike (over half of students and 89 percent of surveyed teachers). Many parents, adolescents and teachers see value in technology tools, some even believe they are more effective than in-person learning. Of the teachers who found WhatsApp, YouTube and live video classes effective, approximately 40 percent thought they were more effective than inperson learning. 

• Moreover, students who are perceived to be learning more are also more likely to have used high-tech tools.

Parents and teachers have also identified important support needs to improve the remote learning experience and deal with safe school returns. Parents said they need help with data, devices and school textbooks. Similarly, teachers requested help with devices and better network access during closures, as well as with having guidelines in place for safety and smaller class sizes once schools re-open, along with the provision of sanitation kits. These needs will extend beyond the pandemic period as they are important for improving the quality and equity of learning.

More than 90 percent of students expect to return if schools re-open in the next three months, mainly to learn more and to better prepare for exams. But it was also observed that there is a serious risk of many students never returning to school due to pressures beyond just the immediate health risks - even after schools re-open. While health concerns are by far the largest deterrent to returning to school, a sizeable number of respondents cited financial constraints as well – 10 percent of families could not afford to send children back to school and 6 percent needed children to help earn an income.

These findings provide knowledge and inspire opportunities for further exploration of how we might enhance remote learning during the current school closures, better prepare for re-opening, and strengthen the education system over the long term.

The study has suggested that in the immediate term, as schools remain closed:

• Reach the last mile students and augment digital learning through textbooks/print materials.

• Create greater awareness of tech tools for remote learning through awareness drives as well as communications efforts, especially for TV and feature phones which are most underutilised. These must be gender-responsive to ensure that households invest in/ allow girls to use and own smartphones and computers equally as boys.

• Encourage greater teacher engagement to augment self-directed learning. Better monitor for teachers to stay in touch and provide proper protective equipment for those conducting home visits, and other enablers such as coverage of additional expenses like data charges. Encourage female teachers to follow up with those girls who are most at risk of being married, in coordination with child protection committees. 

• Improve the most marginalized students' learning experiences through targeted efforts such as more local language content and immersive platforms with multiple access options for students with disabilities.

• Mitigate technology challenges by subsidizing or eliminating device and data costs for teachers, and deploying devices at community level for students.

In the short term, as schools are about to re-open:

• Conduct gender-responsive re-enrolment campaigns to prevent students from dropping out and support to relieve financial challenges (e.g., targeted scholarships and cash transfers through social protection schemes).

• Count the number of students coming back to school, keeping a special track of girls and boys who do not come back and who are no longer living with their families. Work with school management committees, child protection committees and panchayats to ensure that these children have access to education wherever they are and adequate resources and services if they have been married or trafficked. 

• Support students by assessing their learning levels and catching them up through remedial education and teaching at the right level.

• Provide non-academic support such as mental wellness and career guidance counselling.

In the long term, to further strengthen the system: 

• Improve learning outcomes for the longer term through blended learning approaches, leveraging some of tech tools' advantages compared to in-person learning.

• Explore ways to increase effectiveness of commonly used tools like WhatsApp and deliver content in more personalised ways to deepen the quality of remote learning going forward.

• Continue to develop lighter applications that can be downloaded on low-cost smartphones and operate with 2G internet or work offline with only periodic connectivity.

• Improve basic digital infrastructure in schools and continue to invest in connecting remote areas to the digital ecosystem, such as setting up community hotspot facilities.
 

Rural Expert
 

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