Photo 1: Image showing a school in Sierra Leone. Photo credit: Chris McBurnie (EdTechHub) In Sierra Leone, the Ministry of Basic and Senior Secondary Education (MBSSE) and the Teaching Service Commission (TSC) are developing plans to increase the equity and efficiency of teacher allocation.  Over the past few years, the government has struggled to retain qualified teachers in remote and rural locations. Today, the pupil-to-qualified-teacher ratio has risen from 44:1 for schools in urban areas to 76:1 for schools in remote areas (see this 2020 research and policy paper by Mackintosh and ..read more

Despite two years of recovery since Covid-19 lockdowns, school systems worldwide still experience lower post-pandemic attendance levels than pre-Covid. Marginalised learners have been disproportionately affected by the pandemic. Several strategies are being used to accelerate returns to schooling. Messaging is one strategy that is often regarded as likely to be highly cost-effective.  Our Hub-led research in Ghana tests and compares different messaging models to support caregivers in their efforts to encourage their children’s attendance at school. Read on to see what we are learning abou ..read more

At EdTech Hub, we’ve been reflecting on how coloniality is embedded in our work: from the colonial roots of the international development sector to colonial practices embedded in research methods to “core-to-periphery” design and deployment of EdTech interventions. We’ve previously blogged about resources for tackling coloniality and digital neocolonialism in EdTech, decolonising Open Educational Resources and a reflection on personalised learning through a decolonial lens. We are excited to share that we will be co-editing a Special Issue in Educational Sciences on Decolonising Educational T ..read more

Credit: A M Syed / Shutterstock.com New research from EdTech Hub explores the response to climate emergencies following the Pakistan floods – the worst in recent history – and highlights the importance of utilising existing, most accessible technologies to ensure learning continuity. According to the Global Climate Risk Index, Pakistan is the country with the eight highest risk from the effects of climate change in the world, yet it produces less than 1% of the world’s planet-warming emissions. Following a record-breaking heat wave at the start of the summer season, devastating floods hit Pak ..read more

The Girls’ Education Challenge (GEC) was launched by the UK’s Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) in 2012 as a 12-year commitment to reach the most marginalised girls in the world and is the largest global fund dedicated to girls’ education. Within the GEC’s second phase, a second cohort of girls is being supported through Leave No Girl Behind, which consists of interventions for highly marginalised, adolescent girls who are out of school — either because they have never attended school or have dropped out without achieving basic education.    Many projects with ..read more

Credit: Ciku Mbugua As governments in Eastern and Southern Africa lean into education reform to adapt to the changing needs of their societies and tackle the global learning crisis, the integration of technology has become a central piece of these reforms. This is particularly the case in the post-Covid-19 world, where the need to build resilient education systems that support learning outside the traditional school building has become apparent worldwide. There is also an urgent need to recover and accelerate learning through the use of technology to address learning losses.   Govern ..read more

Credit: Gonzalo Bell / Shutterstock.com Este blog está disponible para leer en inglés. Haga clic aquí para ver la versión en inglés. Utilizar modalidades de aprendizaje y enseñanza diversas e inclusivas se ha vuelto cada vez más importante para dar continuidad a la educación, debido sobre todo a la pandemia de Covid-19. En mayo de 2022, EdTech Hub trabajó con la Oficina Regional de UNICEF para América Latina y el Caribe (UNICEF-LACRO), la oficina de país de UNICEF en El Salvador y el Ministerio de Educación de El Salvador para desarrollar un informe titulado Blended and Hybrid Learning Initia ..read more

Credit Aleem Zahid Khan / shutterstock.com This is Part 6 of a six-part blog series inspired by discussions with partners working in the EdTech space who recognise they do not have the information they need to make informed decisions and recommendations. So, we have put together a series summarising what we have learned so far in each of our focus areas: Data for Decisions, Digital Personalised Learning (DPL), Girls’ Education & Technology, Participation & Messaging, and Teacher Continuous Professional Development. We provide some key lessons, an outline of our ongoing work, and some a ..read more

Credit: Gonzalo Bell / Shutterstock.com This blog is available to read in Spanish. Click here for the Spanish version. Using diverse and inclusive learning and teaching modalities has become increasingly important for providing educational continuity, mainly due to the Covid-19 pandemic. In May 2022, EdTech Hub worked with the UNICEF Latin America and Caribbean Regional Office (UNICEF-LACRO), the UNICEF country office in El Salvador, and the El Salvador Ministry of Education to develop a report entitled Blended and Hybrid Learning Initiatives: A curated list for El Salvador. It includes exam ..read more

Credit: Shutterstock This is Part 5 of a six-part blog series inspired by discussions with partners working in the EdTech space who recognise they do not have the information they need to make informed decisions and recommendations. So, we have put together a series summarising what we have learned so far in each of our focus areas: Data for Decisions, Digital Personalised Learning (DPL), Girls’ Education & Technology, Participation & Messaging, and Teacher Continuous Professional Development. We provide some key lessons, an outline of our ongoing work, and some additional resources (w ..read more