Building Resilient Education Systems: Evidence from Large Scale Randomised Trials in Five Countries

CSAE Research Podcasts

Education systems need to withstand shocks that routinely close schools. Researchers discuss results from randomised trials evaluating the provision of education in emergency settings across 5 countries. Shocks such as weather, natural disasters, disease, and conflict frequently disrupt schooling. Education systems need to build resilience and be able to continue to provide education during these shocks. Following on from Youth Impact's work on distance education during the Covid-19 pandemic in Botswana, researchers ask would this approach scale to new settings, with government, and other education in emergencies? Focusing on a method called 'connectEd', a phone call tutorial programme used to deliver high quality education through mobile phone calls, this project replicated and scaled the work from Botswana in five randomised controlled trials in India, Nepal, Kenya, the Philippines, and Uganda.