Two-year RCT of EdTech in Malawi

Malawi’s primary education system has been challenged to provide quality learning in the face of expanding enrollment. To address poor learning outcomes, the Ministry of Education piloted use of onebillion’s onecourse software in about 100 schools. Initial studies of onecourse conducted over 8 weeks to 8 months produced significant effect sizes in math and literacy, although absolute gains were modest. To measure longer-term impacts, Imagine Worldwide conducted a 2-year efficacy randomized controlled trial in two Malawi schools. Despite COVID-related school closures, onecourse produced statistically significant impacts in literacy and math. Further, the 13 months of (interrupted) intervention produced larger effect sizes and higher rates of attaining emergent or fluent reading and math benchmarks than the prior 8-month study.