The coronavirus pandemic requires immediate responses to ensure the quality of educational outcomes for all children, especially the vulnerable and disadvantaged. We must not allow the opportunity gap to widen as a result of this crisis.
It also presents an opportunity to build back better – planning systemic change that will deliver more effective, more inclusive learning in the medium and long term, and provide greater resilience to such system-level shocks in the future.
Our experts tell us how we can help governments not just to maintain continuity of education and children’s wellbeing, but also to create stronger education systems and institutions than before.
COVID-19 has led to 191 countries closing their education institutions, leaving 1.5 billion children unable to go to school.
Extended school closures could have serious consequences for the education and future life chances of young people across the developed and developing world, with the poorest and most marginalised children being impacted the most.
“There is growing concern that school closures – albeit necessary for public health reasons – will further widen the gap between children living in deprived areas and their better-off peers,” says Andy Guest, global practice leader for education.
“Globally, this pandemic could further widen educational disadvantage between those countries with well-funded and resilient education systems and those that do not.
“In short, the crisis could exacerbate inequalities in education unless we consciously and proactively seek to address this.”
Maintaining continuity of education
We have seen the speed with which many working in the aid sector have been able to redirect efforts to respond to the challenges created. Our own teams from Cambridge Education, Mott MacDonald’s specialist education consultancy, have taken rapid action to help governments and education ministries respond to the pandemic.
“We have quickly adapted some of our programmes to ensure learning continues for every child,” says Andy Brock, divisional general manager, International Education.
“Using the right technology for each context, we have helped create and distribute online and radio lessons and set up virtual teacher training environments.”
These immediate response solutions include:
- Strengthening Education Systems for Improved Learning, Uganda – adapting existing literacy and numeracy lessons for radio broadcast, supported by SMS communication.
- Girls’ Education South Sudan – working with 31 radio stations to broadcast lessons and exploring alternatives for the 43% of households without radio access.
- Transforming Teacher Education and Learning, Ghana – almost 20,000 or 60% of student teachers nationwide have joined online lessons which we’ve been able to continue using cloud-based apps such as Telegram, Google Classroom and WhatsApp.
- Leh Wi Lan, Sierra Leone – supporting the adaptation of current radio lessons to bring them in line with newly scripted lesson plans and continuing to mentor teachers remotely using tablets, phones and bulk SMS.
Many of the strategies being deployed to maintain continuity of education are centred around e-learning. But even in the world’s biggest economies, there can be a stark digital divide.
In the UK, for example, a recent study suggested as many as a million children did not have access to a computer or the internet at home. Many households with internet access have more occupants than devices. The ability to quickly scale up this access in a time of crisis has been shown to be woefully inadequate.
Lack of connectivity often correlates with other indices of social deprivation. Communities most exposed to this potential ‘learning loss’ are also those that are weaker economically and more vulnerable to economic downturns. Employment rates are low while the number of adults without basic qualifications is high.
Andy Guest says: “There is a real danger school closures could entrench or widen inequalities, with long-term impacts on the life chances of younger generations too.
“Therefore, government policies and remote learning programmes cannot take a ‘one size fits all’ approach. There needs to be targeted interventions to address not only technological, but also socio-economic divides.
“To address this, the ability to assess need, implement policy and monitor impact at speed in a rapidly changing environment is critical. But this is not the normal operating mode of well-established education systems – it requires a different set of behaviours and skills.”
By linking the knowledge of recognised educationalists with the breadth of consultancy and project management expertise across Mott MacDonald, Cambridge Education is able to swiftly plan and implement solutions to improve education at organisational, regional and national levels.
It has a long track-record of successfully delivering education services that give young people the best possible start in life. Projects include:
- Early education, UK – supporting the roll-out of government-funded childcare for disadvantaged two-year-olds.
- Special educational needs and disability (SEND) reforms, UK – we provided a range of services to support local authorities with implementation of the biggest education reforms in a generation for children and young people with special educational needs.
- Local authority education services, UK – multiple contracts over the past 20 years for the delivery of core education services to more than one million early years and school-aged children.
- Calculus Project, USA – changing the way high schools in Massachusetts, New York and Florida support African-American, Latino and low-income students to achieve success in advanced maths.
- Victorian Professional Learning Communities programme, Australia – coaching and support for principals in Victorian schools, including online delivery of continuing professional development services.