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To assess the impact of lockdown amidst COVID-19 on undergraduate and postgraduate learners of various colleges and universities of West Bengal. An online survey was conducted from 1 May to 8 May 2020 to collect the information. A structural questionnaire link using ‘Google form’ was sent to students’ through WhatsApp and E-mail. A total of 232 students provided complete information regarding the survey. The simple percentage distribution was used to assess the learning status of the study participants. During the lockdown period, around 70% of learners were involved in e-learning. Most of the learners were used android mobile for attending e-learning. Students have been facing various problems related to depression anxiety, poor internet connectivity, and unfavorable study environment at home. Students from remote areas and marginalized sections mainly face enormous challenges for the study during this pandemic. This study suggests targeted interventions to create a positive space for study among students from the vulnerable section of society. Strategies are urgently needed to build a resilient education system in the state that will ensure to develop the skill for employability and the productivity of the young minds.

Education in the Eastern Caribbean has been heavily influenced by the colonial history of the sub-region. In recent years though, in recognition of the fact that the traditional approaches to teaching and learning are no longer meeting the needs of present-day students, there have been calls for change to more student-friendly ones, with electronic technology playing a significant role. However, the resistance to certain types of devices in the classroom has contributed to the slow uptake of widespread use of electronic technology and the online environment as a mode for teaching and learning. The closure of schools due to the advent of COVID-19 pandemic forced education systems in the region to turn to the online environment to engage students in educational activities. Students, teachers and other education officials had to face their apprehensions and venture into this space for schooling. This paper describes actions taken by the Eastern Caribbean Joint Board of Teacher Education to help teachers cope with this different learning environment, guided by the concepts of teacher readiness, equity relating to access of resources and providing caring support for all affected.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, countries have worked to reduce prevalence as well as to mitigate the socioeconomic impact of lockdown and other measures that have slowed down economic activity. To better understand the impact of the crisis on the Rwandan population, IPA ran the first round of our RECOVR survey in Rwanda from June 4-12. Similar to our approach in other RECOVR countries, we surveyed 1,482 respondents on a number of health, economic, and education outcomes by randomly dialing phone numbers in a sample that is representative of the set of active mobile phone numbers held by adults in Rwanda. A large portion of our respondents live in Kigali, the average age of the sample is 30, and 37 percent of respondents are female.This blog post summarizes the key findings and their policy implications. More information about the RECOVR survey, a cross-country panel survey that is tracking the socioeconomic impacts of COVID-19 over time in nine countries, is available here.

This paper discusses the potential role of low-cost private secondary schools in Tanzania. The share of private enrollment has been negatively correlated with the availability of public schools. With the 2016 Fee-Free Basic Education Policy, the public secondary education system is experiencing significant demand pressures. The government has limited resources to address these pressures. Using micro-data from the Morogoro region, the paper finds that private schools have excess capacity that can allow for absorption of additional students at relatively low cost through potential public-private partnerships. The paper finds no evidence that service delivery or student performance is worse in private schools relative to their public counterparts. These findings provide empirical evidence on some key enabling conditions for potential public-private partnerships for secondary education in Tanzania.

Nations from New Zealand to Cuba closed borders promptly and imposed strict quarantine rules, but the UK won’t admit its ‘serious mistake’

This chapter synthesises approaches to teacher professional development based on the evidence provided by three key reviews. A comprehensive and pragmatic set of eight principles for teacher professional development in sub-Saharan Africa is presented, including recommendations for: effective teaching and learning practices that facilitate a focus on student learning; professional status and motivation of teachers; design and conduct of professional development programmes; and the value of appropriate Open Educational Resources / Practices and the wise use of educational technology, as well as considerations for policy formulation. We argue that these features can be realised through holistic school-based peer-facilitated TPD models which is not only not only educationally effective, but also cost-effective and scalable. Such models have the potential to radically increase equitable participation in education.

We have just produced rapid scans of the EdTech landscape in 11 countries: Ghana, Jordan, Kenya, Liberia, Nigeria, Pakistan, Rwanda, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Tanzania, and Zimbabwe. The scans are based primarily on desk research and offer a glimpse into the countries’ EdTech ecosystems. They examine enabling factors for EdTech from a holistic […]

Abstract The COVID-19 pandemic has seen an unprecedented shutdown of society. Nearly 1.725 billion children across the globe have been affected as over 95% of countries closed schools as the virus spread in April 2020. Much attention has been given to school closures as non-pharmaceutical mitigation tools to stem the spread of the disease through ensuring social distancing. Within education, focus has been given to keep students connected through remote learning and the immediate needs of schools upon reopening. This study takes a longer-term view. Using Demographic Health Surveys and Multiple Indicator Cluster Surveys from before and after the 2013-2016 Ebola outbreak in Guinea and Sierra Leone, this study examines changes in enrolment and dropout patterns, with targeted consideration given to traditionally marginalized groups. With schools closed for seven and nine months in the two countries, the length and intensity of the Ebola pandemic is the only health crises in the past century to come close to the school closures being experienced in 2020. Findings suggest that youth in the poorest households see the largest increase in dropout rates post-Ebola and that this impact can persist for years. Two years after being declared Ebola-free an additional 22,000 of the poorest secondary age youth remained out of school than would have been expected based on the pre-outbreak dropout rate. To halt the likely expansion in inequality post-pandemic, these results point to the need for longer term, sustainable planning that includes comprehensive financial support packages to groups most likely to be impacted.