Unequal access to remote schooling amid COVID-19 threatens to deepen global learning crisis - UNICEF (2020)

Open Education Resources in Africa: A Curated Resource List - Koomar, Saalim; Jull, Stephen (Zenodo, 2020)
This curated list defines open educational resources, offers background on open source licensing, and provides a review of OER relevant to the context of Ghana in response to an EdTech Hub helpdesk request. This document does not intend to set out a comprehensive list of OER used by teachers, students, parents or other stakeholders; rather, this document will identify exemplars of OER provided they are relevant to the Ghanaian context and focus on: reaching marginalised learners through offline or online content; reaching marginalised learners through mass media; using OER for teacher education; further useful resources and methods of implementing OER.

A COVID-19 panacea in digital technologies? Challenges for democracy and higher education: - Burns, Ryan (Dialogues in Human Geography, 2020)
Universities have transitioned to online education in order to slow the spread of COVID-19. This transition mobilizes the technological utopian imaginary that d...

Learning through radio and television in the time of COVID-19 - UNESCO (UNESCO, 2020)

Learning through radio and television in times of COVID-19 - UNESCO (2020)
With an estimated 91.3 percent or 1.57 billion students out of school worldwide, ministers of education are executing their plans for school during disruptions related to COVID-19. Under the banner of learning continuity, many countries have slowly begun to use existing platforms, tools, and technologies for some form of interim learning by distance.

Informality, Consumption Taxes and Redistribution - Bachas, Pierre; Gadenne, Lucie; Jensen, Anders (2020)
Can taxes on consumption redistribute in developing countries? Contrary to consensus, we show that taxing consumption is progressive once we account for informal consumption. Using household expenditure surveys in 32 countries we proxy for informal consumption using the type of store where purchases occur. We find that the budget share spent in informal stores steeply declines with income, so that the effective tax rate of a broad consumption tax rises with income. Our findings imply that the widespread policy of exempting food from taxation cannot be justified on equity grounds in low-income-countries.Institutional subscribers to the NBER working paper series, and residents of developing countries may download this paper without additional charge at www.nber.org.
Keywords: Anders Jensen; Consumption Taxes and Redistribution; Informality; Lucie Gadenne; Pierre Bachas; SSRN

Moroccan Students Can Freely Access TelmidTICE Remote Learning Platform - Hatim, Yahia (Morocco World News, 2020)
Moroccan students can access the TelmidTICE remote learning platform without necessarily having an internet subscription.

Putting the ‘learning’ back in remote learning - Alam, Andaleeb; Tiwari, Priyamvada (UNICEF, 2020)

Gender and the digital divide across urban slums of New Delhi, India: cross-sectional study - Joshi, Ashish; Malhotra, Bhavya; Amadi, Chioma; Loomba, Menka; Misra, Archa; Sharma, Shruti; Arora, Arushi; Amatya, Jaya (Journal of Medical Internet Research, 2020)

Achieving World-Class Education in Adverse Socioeconomic Conditions: The Case of Sobral in Brazil - Loureiro, Andre; Cruz, Louisee (World Bank, 2020)
This report presents the case of the municipality of Sobral in the state of Ceara, Brazil. This municipality overcame adverse socioeconomic conditions and now has the best primary andlower secondary education system in Brazil. Sobral is home to 200,000 inhabitants and in 2005 was ranked 1,366 in the national index that measures quality of education in Brazil. Twelve years later, it was ranked first among the 5,570 municipalities in both primary and lower secondary education rankings. Public education in Sobral has one goal: every student must complete lower secondary education at the right age and with appropriate learning. The municipality placed education at the top of the political agenda and kept it out of politics. Its prioritized learning by establishing a clear intermediate target, ensuring all students are literate by the end of the second grade. It organized the education policy under four pillars: effective use of student assessment; focused curriculum with a clear learning sequence and prioritization of foundational skills; prepared and motivated teachers; and autonomous and accountable school management with school principals appointed through a meritocratic and technical selection process. The main aspects of the reforms are presented and discussed in this report.
Keywords: Early Childhood Education; Education; Education Quality; Education Reform; Education for All; Literacy; Primary Education; Secondary Education; Student Performance

The State of Ceara in Brazil is a Role Model for Reducing Learning Poverty - Loureiro, Andre; Cruz, Louisee; Lautharte, Ildo; Evans, David K. (World Bank, 2020)
This report presents the case of the state of Ceara in Brazil that overcame adverse socioeconomic conditions to substantially improve education outcomes with efficient use of resources. Despite having the 5th lowest GDP per capita among the 26 Brazilian states, the 9-million-inhabitant state of Ceara has experienced the largest increase in the national education quality index in both primary and lower secondary education since 2005, with 10 municipalities of Ceara being among the top 20 national ranking, including Sobral which has the highest score. The state of Ceara pioneered the use of results-based financing as part of a comprehensive education reform program that among other elements included strong support to its municipalities to achieve universal literacy by the end of grade 2. The reforms allowed the state to considerably improve learning levels of students in primary and lower secondary education with a high level of efficiency in the use of resources. The main aspects of the reforms are presented and discussed.
Keywords: Education Quality; Education Reform; Learning Poverty; Results-Based Financing; Secondary Education

Mauritania Fact Sheet - UNHCR (UNHCR, 2020)

Roadmap for Digital Cooperation - United Nations (2020)

Kenya Public Expenditure Review 2020: Options for Fiscal Consolidation after the COVID-19 Crisis - World Bank (World Bank, 2020)
The objective of this public expenditure review (PER) is to provide the government with options for fiscal consolidation and support macroeconomic stability in the medium-term. This PER addresses the broad topic of expenditure efficiency and examines options for expenditure rationalization to help return Kenya’s fiscal accounts to a prudent trajectory in the medium-term. The PER is being undertaken as a programmatic analytical product with two modules. The first module focuses on identifying options for expenditure rationalization and measures to strengthen within-year expenditure control for better expenditure management. The second module to be delivered in FY21 will focus on efficiency, effectiveness, and equity of spending within public services delivery sectors of education, health, and disaster risk financing. The report builds upon several other Bank-led reports that contribute to the discussion around improving public expenditure and strengthening expenditure controls in Kenya. It complements an ongoing governance for enabling service delivery and public investments in Kenya (GESDeK) project, which is at the forefront in supporting numerous reforms highlighted in this PER to improve efficiency in spending and strengthen expenditure controls. The report is organized as follows: chapter one contains the macro context, trends, and composition of spending, overall balance and debt. Chapter two contains the fiscal and debt sustainability analysis while chapter three presents options for expenditure rationalization in Kenya. Chapter four ties it all together with fiscal savings and policy recommendations.
Keywords: Debt Sustainability; Expenditure Control System; Fiscal Sustainability; Fiscal Trends; Public Debt; Public Expenditure; Public Investment Management; Public Procurement; Public Wage Bill; Revenue

Covid-19 Is History’s Biggest Translation Challenge - McCulloch, Gretchen (Wired, 2020)
Services like Google Translate support only 100 languages, give or take. What about the thousands of other languages—spoken by people just as vulnerable to this crisis?
Keywords: coronavirus; covid-19; language; translation; web

Trapped in low performance? Tracking the learning trajectory of disadvantaged girls and boys in the Complementary Basic Education programme in Ghana | Elsevier Enhanced Reader - McCulloch, Gretchen (2020)

Kemendikbud Terbitkan Pedoman Penyelenggaraan Belajar dari Rumah - Belajar dari Rumah (Kementerian Pendidikan, Kebudayaan, Riset, dan Teknologi, 2020)
Kementerian Pendidikan dan Kebudayaan (Kemendikbud) menerbitkan Surat Edaran Nomor 15 Tahun 2020 tentang Pedoman Penyelenggaraan Belajar Dari Rumah Dalam Masa Darurat Penyebaran Covid-19. Staf Ahli Menteri Pendidikan dan Kebudayaan Bidang Regulasi, Chatarina Muliana Girsang menyampaikan Surat Edaran Nomor 15 ini untuk memperkuat Surat Edaran Mendikbud Nomor 4 Tahun 2020 tentang Pelaksanaan Pendidikan Dalam Masa Darurat Coronavirus Disease (Covid-19).

Meeting the challenges posed by per diem in development projects in southern countries: a scoping review - Samb, Oumar Mallé; Essombe, Christiane; Ridde, Valery (Globalization and Health, 2020)
This study presents the results of a review whose goal is to generate knowledge on the possible levers of action concerning per diem practices in southern countries in order to propose reforms to the existing schemes.
Keywords: Per diem; Policy dialogue; Reform; West Africa

Comparative Analysis of Personal Data Protection Bill 2020 with Laws and Bills in the EU, UK, India, and Malaysia - Shahani, Shumaila Hussain (2020)
Overview of the Comparative Analysis  By Shumaila Hussain Shahani The draft Personal Data Protection Bill, 2020 was made available by the Ministry of Information Technology and Telecommunication (MoITT) on its website on April 9, 2020. This analysis compares the draft Personal Data Protection Bill 2020 to the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) (from which the …

Calculating the Educational Impact of COVID-19 (Part II): Using Data from Successive Grades to Estimate Learning Loss - Cummiskey, Chris; Stern, Jonathan; DeStefano, Joe; Piper, Ben (The Education and Development Forum (UKFIET), 2020)
This article was co-authored by Christopher Cummiskey and Jonathan Stern. It benefitted from input from Joe DeStefano, Tim Slade, and Ben Piper. The article was originally published on the RTI SharEd website on 13 May 2020. Part I can be read here. A couple of weeks ago, we set the stage for developing evidence-based, data-driven […]

Global Education Coalition facilitates free internet access for distance education in several countries - UNESCO (2020)
Keywords: ___working_potential_duplicate

MozPulse wave 1 Results Report - World Bank (World Bank, 2020)

Ivory Coast children head back to school after virus shutdown - Reuters Staff (Reuters, 2020)
Thousands of children in face masks flocked back to school in Ivory Coast on Monday after the country became one of the first in West Africa to restart lessons after a two-month coronavirus shutdown.
Keywords: Africa; Aid Relief / Humanitarian Agencies; CORONAVIRUS; Children / Youth Issues; Coronavirus; EDUCATION; Education; Epidemics; HEALTH; Health / Medicine; Human Rights / Civil Rights; IVORYCOAST; Ivory Coast; Overseas Development Aid; Pictures; US; Video Available; West Africa; Western Europe

Why the COVID Crisis Is Not EdTech’s Moment In Africa [repost] - CrawFurd, Lee (Open Development & Education, 2020)
With schools closed for hundreds of million students around the world, many have hoped that “edtech” can help keep children learning via internet, apps, and mobiles. A new database published by the EdTech Hub shows that though use of edtech products serving African countries has doubled in the last month, the total number of users is still very low, and most were viewers of one TV show. That, coupled with the fact that most firms come from just a few countries, suggests that edtech in Africa is far from maturity.

Remote-learning, Time-Use, and Mental Health of Ecuadorian High-School Studentsduring the COVID-19 Quarantine - Asanov, Igor; Flores, Francisco; McKenzie, David; Mensmann, Mona; Schulte, Mathis (World Bank Policy Research Working Paper, 2020)
Keywords: ⛔ No DOI found

Digital technologies in the COVID-19 responses in sub-Saharan Africa: policies, problems and promises - Bakibinga-Gaswaga, Elizabeth; Bakibinga, Stella; Bakibinga, David Baxter Mutekanga; Bakibinga, Pauline (The Pan African Medical Journal, 2020)
The gains made five years after the adoption of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development will be lost if the threats presented by the COVID-19 pandemic are not countered in a timely manner. The threat is worse in sub Saharan Africa where poverty and poor health and limited access to services present challenges to even the most robust of health systems on the continent. In light of the requisite public-private collaboration and multi-sectoral approach, digital technologies offer opportunities to support the COVID-19 responses. This commentary reviews the policy environment and the challenges presented by digital illiteracy, poor infrastructure, the high cost of installing ICT infrastructure, the volatile political environment and limited electricity supply as well as the opportunities that digital technologies provide to ensure that people and communities are still able to access goods and services. It highlights how digital technologies are being used by the governments, parliaments, judiciaries, schools, health service providers, transport authorities and marketers to reach their targeted audiences. The commentary concludes with recommendations on possible interventions that emphasize the need to address infrastructural limitations, promote public private partnerships and tackle the digital divide in all its dimensions, including from a gender and rural/urban perspective.

Reopening schools: When, where and how? - Giannini, Stefania; Jenkins, Robert; Saavedra, Jaime (World Bank Blogs, 2020)
Reopening schools: When, where and how?

Brazil: Secretaria Estadual de Educação de São Paulo (São Paulo State Department of Education) - Dellagnelo, Lucia; Reimers, Fernando (2020)

Distance Learning Denied - Giannini, Stefania (World Education Blog, 2020)
Over 500 million of the world’s children and youth not accessing distance learning alternatives By Stefania Giannini, UNESCO Assistant Director-General for Education Most countries around the world…

5 actions to help bring the most marginalized girls back to school after COVID-19 - Jenkins, Robert; Winthrop, Rebecca (The Brookings Institution, 2020)

Calculating the Educational Impact of COVID-19 (Part II): Using Data from Successive Grades to Estimate Learning Loss | SharEd - Cummiskey, Chris (2020)
Keywords: _COVID_DEAA-List

Reopening schools: How to get education back on track after COVID-19 - IIEP UNESCO; Planning, International Institute for Educational (IIEP-UNESCO, 2020)
It is a ‘back to school’ season like no other: countries are beginning to reopen their school gates following weeks of e

Reopening schools: How to get education back on track after COVID-19 - International Institute for Educational Planning (IIEP-UNESCO, 2020)
It is a ‘back to school’ season like no other: countries are beginning to reopen their school gates following weeks of e

Could coronavirus lockdowns help close Latin America's digital divide? - Moloney, Anastasia (Reuters, 2020)
As Colombia enters its eighth week of coronavirus lockdown, street vendor Luis Duarte worries that his teenage daughter might not finish her school year now that her classes have moved online.
Keywords: Americas; CORONAVIRUS; Central America; Children; Civil Liberties; Civil Rights; Coronavirus; Education; Enterprise Reporting; Features; Fundamental Rights; General News; Government; HEALTH; Health; Human Rights; Internet; LATAM; Medicine; Peru; Politics; Social Issues; Society; South America; TECH; TRFN; Technology (TRBC level 1); US; United Nations; World Wide Web; Youth Issues

Taleem Ghar: Delivering Education In The Safety Of Homes - The Academia (2020)
Taleem Ghar: Delivering Education In The Safety Of Homes Asad Ullah Khan explain how Punjab government has acted to effects of COVID-19 in education
Keywords: auto_merged

Taleem Ghar: Delivering Education In The Safety Of Homes - The Academia (2020)
Taleem Ghar: Delivering Education In The Safety Of Homes Asad Ullah Khan explain how Punjab government has acted to effects of COVID-19 in education

Between Social Justice and Decolonisation: Exploring South African MOOC Designers’ Conceptualisations and Approaches to Addressing Injustices - Adam, Taskeen (Journal of Interactive Media in Education, 2020)
As social justice and decolonisation discussions fill the physical and virtual corridors of universities in South Africa, educators, and in this case, MOOC designers, are inevitably influenced by them. They are prompted to reflect on such topics, whether in agreement or with scepticism. Provoked by one interviewee’s comment that ‘you could decolonise and still have an enormous amount of injustice’, this paper investigates how South African MOOC designers conceptualise (in)justice, and how they attempt to address these injustices in and through their MOOCs. As notions such as ‘social justice’ and ‘decolonisation’ have multiple meanings and connotations, a framework was created to unpack the ‘Dimensions of Human Injustice’ namely, material, cultural-epistemic, and political/geopolitical injustices. These dimensions of injustice were used to analyse semi-structured interviews with 27 South African MOOC designers. MOOC designers who stressed cultural-epistemic injustices, focused on relevance, inclusive processes and the geopolitics of knowledge production. Those who stressed material injustices, focused on socio-economic disparities, infrastructural inequalities and the need to tackle these systemic problems at a societal level. Through illustrating that MOOC designers attempt to address injustices based on their different conceptualisations of (in)justice, this study argues that a multi-pronged approach to tackling the various dimensions of injustice perpetuated in and through MOOCs can lead to more holistic justice-oriented MOOCs that better enable learners. Additionally, justice-oriented efforts by South African MOOC designers, highlighted in this paper, can be seen as a guide for the MOOC space in general to take greater strides in creating MOOCs in more justice-oriented ways.
Keywords: MOOC designers; cultural-epistemic injustice; decolonisation; dode_eth-src-dode; dode_eth-trf2-dode; geopolitical injustice; material injustice; social justice

Who has what? Assessing who has access to what devices in the education response to the COVID-19 pandemic - Haßler, Björn; Khalayleh, Abdullah; McBurnie, Chris; Adam, Taskeen; Allier-Gagneur, Zoé (Open Development & Education, 2020)
Keywords: _yl:x; dode_eth-src-dode; dode_eth-trf2-dode

Assessing the real-life socio-economic scenario of established slums in Dhaka: the cases of Korail and Sattola - Bashar, Raisa; Tonmoy, Sirajus; Ria, Alvira; Khan, Nazmul (European Online Journal of Natural and Social Sciences, 2020)
The research aims to assess the current situation of three primary socioeconomic indicators, namely education, health and water availability at the two most established slums of Bangladesh's capital Dhaka-Korail and Sattola. Surveys, using cluster and then random sampling to target households, and analysis, found that both slums' children's education level was moderate with 52%-68% and 20%-28% availing primary and secondary education, respectively; several NGOs had helped to establish brick-and-mortar latrines and disseminate necessary and effective awareness about sanitation; and surveyed slum dwellers were economically strong, with 68%-70% of the interviewed households' income levels being 10,000-15,000 BDT (USD 118-178) per month. A comparative analysis with national level statistics also yielded that the conditions in these slums are truly better than previously thought. Primary recommendation includes in-depth monitoring to understand why such large numbers live in slums, even though they can afford better.
Keywords: ⚠️ Invalid DOI

An Improved Model for the Implementation of Web-Based Learning in Adult Secondary School Education in Kenya - Ng’ang’a, Ms Martha Muthoni; Kimani, Prof Stephen; Kimwele, Dr Michael W. (International Journal of Computer (IJC), 2020)
The development of technology, which evolves continuously, has led to the transformation of traditional courses into web-based courses. However, as these e-learning systems grow more complex, involving numerous users with different levels of need, there is a need to have web-based learning models that adequately address such users’ needs, taking into consideration their levels of expertise, access and ability to interact with such systems. Most of the existing models present the adult learners with difficulties, as most of them have to concentrate mostly on learning the technology rather than learning the desired content. Most of the difficulties arise from the web-based learning model configurations in use in the country. The majority lack features and capabilities of highly interactive, fast-paced multimedia-supported learning currently demanded by most learners and tutors. Therefore, the main aim of this research was to devise an improved model for implementing a web-based learning programme in adult secondary school education. After analysing the existing models and establishing their operational challenges, an improved model was proposed. The proposed model was statistically tested using sample data. The results showed that recognizing both technological and user attributes along the recognized theoretical frameworks was important in increasing the users’ behavioural inclination to use the improved model. Therefore, it is recommended that more sensitization to web-based learning should be implemented by the adult education department in the Ministry of Education among adult learners in the country. It is also recommended that system developers should find ways of incorporating additional features into the model without affecting its architecture and function. Finally, there is need for future studies on the causal antecedents of the constructs presented in this research model to provide more precise practical implications.
Keywords: Adult Learners; Model; Web Based Learning; ⛔ No DOI found

Lebanon Telecoms, Mobile and Broadband Markets 2020 - Pricing of Telecom Services Has Been Raised as an Issue in Recent Years (Business Wire, 2020)
The

The COVID-19 Pandemic: Shocks to Education and Policy Responses - Rogers, Halsey; Sabarwal, Shwetlena; Avitabile, Ciro; Lee, Jessica; Miyamoto, Koji; Nellemann, Soren; Venegas Marin, Sergio (World Bank, 2020)

The COVID-19 Pandemic: Shocks to Education and Policy Responses - World Bank (World Bank, 2020)

How school closures during COVID-19 further marginalize vulnerable children in Kenya - Jepkemei, Damaris Seleina Parsitau and Evelyn (Brookings, 2020)
School closures in Kenya have devastating consequences for marginalized learners.

Ghana Learning TV May Timetable from KG to SHS - Ghana Education Service (2020)

Intersectionality as a lens to the COVID-19 pandemic: implications for sexual and reproductive health in development and humanitarian contexts - Lokot, Michelle; Avakyan, Yeva (Sexual and Reproductive Health Matters, 2020)

Are children with disabilities in school and learning? Evidence from a household survey in rural Punjab, Pakistan - Malik, Rabea; Raza, Fizza; Rose, Pauline; Singal, Nidhi (Compare: A Journal of Comparative and International Education, 2020)
Invisibility of children with disabilities in data on educational access and learning is a key policy challenge for tracking progress towards the Sustainable Development Goals. In this article, we report findings from a household survey undertaken in rural Punjab, Pakistan. These data enable us to identify the extent to which children with disabilities are in school and learning the basics in literacy and numeracy. We find that, perhaps contrary to expectations, many of these children in this context are in mainstream (government and private) schools, although their chances of being in school are lower than their peers. We further find that overall levels of literacy and numeracy are low, even more so for children with disabilities. Our findings corroborate recent research from other countries. The paper highlights important lessons for the policy which are of relevance to other low-income contexts.
Keywords: Learning outcomes; Pakistan; Washington Group; disability; household survey; primary education

Social inequalities, fundamental inequities, and recurring of the digital divide: Insights from India - Tewathia, Nidhi; Kamath, Anant; Ilavarasan, P. Vigneswara (Technology in Society, 2020)
The paper uses a large scale national quantitate dataset to provide a fresh perspective on linkages between the digital divide and social inequalities in India. Commencing from two classical social theoretical perspectives – the Marxian conflict perspective and the Weberian cultural perspective – as starting points, we employed MANCOVA analysis on data of more than forty thousand households. The Marxian perspective reveals how information and communication technologies (ICT) assets come to be owned, and how they are used with the help of specific digital skills by the working class to influence labour markets and intergenerationally transfer class advantage. The Weberian perspective focuses on how ownership and use of ICT assets define an elite lifestyle which excludes others. The analysis is deepened by employing network effects approach. Results from data analysis indicate that the less educated, lower-income group, and lower caste strata are further marginalised as they neither have ICT assets nor the skills to use them. Households whose primary source of income is organised business own and use their ICT assets more than those that depend on agricultural or non-agricultural wage labour. Also, the highest adult education in a household, caste, and the primary source of income of the household differentiate ICT ownership and use. Overall, ICT ownership and usage are significantly different for different socio-economic groups in India. This linkage demonstrates how inequalities are aggravated in the manner of a Matthew Effect. The paper suggests that ICTs may end up amplifying the social inequalities in India.
Keywords: Digital divide; Households; ICT; IHDS; Inequality

A rapid assessment: Impact of COVID-19 on Education in Bangladesh - Advocacy for Social Change, BRAC; BRAC Education Programme (2020)

A Rapid Assessment: Impact of COVID-19 on Education in Bangladesh - BRAC (Advocacy for Social Change (ASC), BRAC, 2020)

Overview of emerging country-level response to providing educational continuity under COVID-19 - Hallgarten, Joe; Gorgen, Kristine; Sims, Kate (Education Development Trust, 2020)
Keywords: ⛔ No DOI found

Distance Learning Initiative Interim findings: May 15, 2020 - Ministry of Education and Higher Education (Lebanon) (2020)

COVID-19 response and recovery plan: education sector - Ministry of Primary and Mass Education (Ministry of Education, Government of the People’s Republic of Bangladesh, 2020)

Kenya basic education COVID-19 emergency response plan - State Department of Early Learning and Basic Education (Republic of Kenya Ministry of Education, 2020)

Multi-Sectoral Rapid Needs Assessment: COVID19 - Jordan - UNHCR; UNICEF; WFP (2020)

Guidance on Distance Learning Modalities to Reach All Children and Youth During School Closures - UNICEF Regional Office for South Asia (2020)

Guidance on Distance Learning Modalities to Reach All Children and Youth During School Closures - UNICEF Regional Office for South Asia (2020)

COVID-19 Global Humanitarian Response Plan (Humanitarian response plan) | Financial Tracking Service - United Nations (2020)
United Nations Coordinated Appeal
Keywords: ___working_potential_duplicate

Barriers to Investing in Last-Mile Connectivity - USAID (2020)

Using telecollaboration to promote intercultural competence in teacher training classrooms in Turkey and the USA - Üzüm, Babürhan; Akayoglu, Sedat; Yazan, Bedrettin (ReCALL, 2020)
Since advances in computer-mediated communication (CMC) tools have made virtual exchanges readily available in educational practices, telecollaboration has been gaining traction as a means to provide practical experiences and cultural exposure to language learners and, more recently, teacher trainees. Drawing upon Byram’s (1997) model of intercultural communicative competence (ICC), this study examines 48 teacher trainees’ interculturality through a telecollaborative project between two teacher training classes from Turkey and the USA. This study relies on data generated by the participants throughout this telecollaborative project: weekly online discussion board posts within groups of six and post-project reflections. Although developing ICC is an arduous and prolonged task, the data analysis suggested that the participants’ experiences in this telecollaboration contributed to their emergent ICC through discussions on the topics of multicultural education and interactions with trainees from another educational context. Their intercultural learning is evidenced by their (1) awareness of heterogeneity in their own and interactants’ culture, (2) nascent critical cultural awareness, and (3) curiosity and willingness to learn more about the other culture. Thus, this study implies that telecollaboration offers an effective teacher training venue that affords teacher trainees with first-hand intercultural encounters to engage with otherness and prepare for their ethnolinguistically diverse classrooms.
Keywords: critical cultural awareness; intercultural communicative competence; teacher training; telecollaboration

COVID-19 and Bangladesh: challenges and how to address them - Anwar, Saeed; Nasrullah, Mohammad; Hosen, Mohammad Jakir (Frontiers in Public Health, 2020)
As the coronavirus outbreak quickly surges worldwide, many countries are adopting non-therapeutic preventive measures, which include travel bans, remote office activities, country lockdown, and most importantly, social distancing. However, these measures face challenges in Bangladesh, a lower-middle-income economy with one of the world's densest populations. Social distancing is difficult in many areas of the country, and with the minimal resources the country has, it would be extremely challenging to implement the mitigation measures. Mobile sanitization facilities and temporary quarantine sites and healthcare facilities could help mitigate the impact of the pandemic at a local level. A prompt, supportive, and empathic collaboration between the Government, citizens, and health experts, along with international assistance, can enable the country to minimize the impact of the pandemic.

How can Sierra Leone’s education response after Ebola help with the COVID-19 response? - Bangay, Colin (The Education and Development Forum (UKFIET), 2020)
This blog is written by Colin Bangay, Senior Education Adviser, Department for International Development (DFID). It aims to look at some practical and sensible lessons from the education response in Sierra Leone during the Ebola outbreak, to help others as they face closures of education systems. This blog was originally published on the Global Partnership […]

Proposal for GPE Accelerated Funding for COVID-19 Response: Malawi - GPE (Global Partnership for Education, 2020)

A case study of innovations that address constraints on the effectiveness of early-grade reading achievement - Comings, John P. (PROSPECTS, 2020)
The United States Agency for International Development, World Vision, and the Australian government established All Children Reading: A Grand Challenge for Development (ACR GCD) to address problems that prevent children from gaining foundational reading skills. ACR GCD mobilizes the private sector, academia, and nongovernmental organizations in problem-solving dialogues that support the development, testing, and promotion of new solutions to these problems. It also advances EdTech innovation and research to improve reading outcomes for marginalized children in low-resource contexts to effectively build bridges over system constraints in ways that lower the risk of pilot-testing and eventual large-scale replication. This case study describes some of ACR GCD’s funded innovations and its nontraditional approach to employing grant competitions (in which innovators propose solutions to broadly described problems) and prizes (in which innovators develop solutions to specifically identified problems). For innovations that have been evaluated, this article summarizes the findings on their impact on learning.

1.3 billion learners are still affected by school or university closures, as educational institutions start reopening around the world, says UNESCO - UNESCO (2020)

Covid-19 Crisis: UNESCO Call to Support Learning and Knowledge Sharing through Open Educational Resources - UNESCO (UNESCO, 2020)
In response to the massive disruption of education due to the Covid-19 pandemic affecting 1.57 billion learners in 191 countries, UNESCO has issued a Call to support learning and knowledge sharing through Open Educational Resources (OER) worldwide. OER are learning, teaching and research materials in any format and medium that reside in the public domain or are under copyright released under an open license[1], permitting no-cost access, re-use, re-purpose, adaptation and redistribution by others.

Technical Note: Education during the COVID-19 Pandemic. - Inter-agency Network for Education in Emergencies (INEE). (2020)
We are thrilled to share a new INEE Technical Note on Education during the COVID-19 Pandemic.

EdTech in the time of COVID-19: We need more than evidence to harness the potential of EdTech to deliver on its promise | The Education and Development Forum - Outhred, Rachel; Lipcan, Alina (UKFIET, 2020)

Back to school: Preparing and managing the reopening of schools - UNESCO (2020)

Delivering distance learning in emergencies: A review of evidence and best practice - Morris, Emily; Farrell, Anna; EnCompass LLC; MSI (USAID, 2020)

Delivering Distance Education in Emergencies: A Review of Evidence and Best Practice - USAID (2020)
The purpose of this review, produced by USAID's Data and Evidence in Education Programs (DEEP) activity, is to provide evidence on four effective distance learning modalities that can be implemented in USAID-recipient countries during and beyond emergencies.

Delivering Distance Learning in Emergencies | Education Links - USAID (2020)
The purpose of this review, produced by USAID's Data and Evidence in Education Programs (DEEP) activity, is to provide evidence on four effective distance learning modalities that can be implemented in USAID-recipient countries during and beyond emergencies.

Caring in the time of COVID-19: Gender, unpaid care work and social protection - Nesbitt-Ahmed, Zahrah; Subrahmanian, Ramya (UNICEF Evidence for Action, 2020)
The impact of COVID-19 on care workers and the role of social protection in ensuring they thrive while performing critical services in homes and communities

The privilege of #pivotonline: A South African perspective - Adam, Taskeen (Open Development & Education, 2020)
Taskeen Adam, https://opendeved.net/2020/04/22/the-privilege-of-#pivotonline/, 2020-04-22, 10.5281/zenodo.3760383 As the global number of COVID-19 cases increase, lockdowns continue across the world. Reports from UNESCO highlight that nationwide closures are impacting over 91% of the world’s student population who can no longer attend school. With schools closed, there has been a mass shift to online education — from primary …
Keywords: ___working_potential_duplicate; dode_eth-src-dode; dode_eth-trf2-dode

How involved are parents in their children’s learning? MICS6 data reveal critical insights - Mishra, Sakshi; Brossard, Matt; Reuge, Nicolas; Mizunoya, Suguru (Evidence for Action, 2020)
It is widely understood that parents play a pivotal role in a child’s education – research suggests that parental involvement in a child’s education boosts well-being and confidence and is important for academic progression. With school closures due to the global COVID-19 pandemic affecting an estimated 1.58 billion children in more than 180 countries, the importance of parental involvement in education has suddenly and dramatically increased. Internationally comparable data on parental involvement and its impact on children’s education is extremely limited. To address this critical gap, round 6 of the UNICEF supported Multiple Indicator Cluster Surveys (MICS6) includes a new…

How involved are parents in their children’s learning? MICS6 data reveal critical insights - Mishra, Sakshi; Brossard, Matt; Reuge, Nicolas; Mizunoya, Suguru (Evidence for Action, 2020)
It is widely understood that parents play a pivotal role in a child’s education – research suggests that parental involvement in a child’s education boosts well-being and confidence and is important for academic progression. With school closures due to the global COVID-19 pandemic affecting an estimated 1.58 billion children in more than 180 countries, the importance of parental involvement in education has suddenly and dramatically increased. Internationally comparable data on parental involvement and its impact on children’s education is extremely limited. To address this critical gap, round 6 of the UNICEF supported Multiple Indicator Cluster Surveys (MICS6) includes a new…

Laptops offered for online school lessons at home - Coughlan, Sean (BBC News, 2020)
Pupils studying at home will have online lessons and disadvantaged teenagers can borrow computers.

High Court stops Malawi's 21-day coronavirus lockdown - Montsho, Molaole (2020)
The Lilongwe High Court in Malawi has granted Human Rights Defenders Coalition (HDRC) an order blocking the government from effecting a 21-day lockdown meant to curb the spread of Covid-19.

Rapid Response Guidance Note: Educational Television & COVID-19 - World Bank (2020)
Keywords: ___working_potential_duplicate

Rapid Response Guidance Note: Educational Television & COVID-19 - World Bank; Bank, World (2020)
Keywords: ___working_potential_duplicate

Gobierno habilita herramienta “Inteligencia Quisqueya” para estudiantes que se preparan para pruebas nacionales - CDN, Redacción (CDN - El Canal de Noticias de los Dominicanos, 2020)
Estableció también que los jóvenes y adultos que lo deseen, podrán cursar a través de la Escuela Radiofónica Santa María estudios básicos y medios.

THE IMPACT OF COVID-19 ON LEARNING - THE PERSPECTIVE OF THE GHANAIAN STUDENT - Owusu-Fordjour, C.; Koomson, C. K.; Hanson, D. (European Journal of Education Studies, 2020)
This study aimed at accessing the impact of Covid-19 on Ghana’s teaching and learning. The study employed a Descriptive survey design in which 11 items Likert-scale type of questionnaires was administered to 214 respondents mainly students in the second cycle and tertiary institutions of Ghana. The study employed simple random sampling technique in selecting the respondents for the study. The study revealed some challenges students encounter in the close down of schools due to the outbreak of the pandemic Covid-19: Students are unable to study effectively from the house thus, making the online system of learning very ineffective. Again, parents are incapable of assisting their wards on how to access online learning platform, neither can they entirely supervise the learning of their children at home without any complications. It came to light that the pandemic really has had a negative impact on their learning as many of them are not used to effectively learn by themselves. The e-learning platforms rolled out also poses challenge to majority of the students because of the limited access to internet and lack of the technical knowhow of these technological devices by most Ghanaian students. The study therefore recommends that students should be introduced to e-learning platforms to supplement classroom teaching and learning.  Article visualizations:
Keywords: emotions; highlife music; lyrics; popular music; structure; ⚠️ Invalid DOI

Education during the pandemic: VVOB continues capacity development of education partners from a safe distance - Vandenbosch, Tom; Katelin, Raw (Teaching at the Right Level, 2020)
VVOB Zambia team member Richard Bwale continues to work from home. Photo: VVOB This blogpost is part of a series – over the next few months, the TaRL blog hopes to showcase what various organisations are doing to continue to support education systems and ensure that learning continues while schools across the world are closed […]

Report: The Impact of COVID-19 Across Africa - Elliott, Roxana (GeoPoll, 2020)
New report on coronavirus in sub-Saharan Africa including data from Kenya, Ghana, South Africa, Nigeria. COVID-19 and food security, economic impact.

Policy Brief: The Impact of COVID-19 on children - UN (UN, 2020)
Children are not the face of this pandemic. But they risk being among its biggest victims. While they have thankfully been largely spared from the direct health effects of COVID-19 at least to date – the crisis is having a profound effect on their wellbeing. All children, of all ages, and in all countries, are being affected, in particular by the socio-economic impacts and, in some cases, by mitigation measures that may inadvertently do more harm than good. This is a universal crisis and, for some children, the impact will be lifelong. Moreover, the harmful effects of this pandemic will not be distributed equally. They are expected to be most damaging for children in the poorest countries, and in the poorest neighbourhoods, and for those in already disadvantaged or vulnerable situations. This policy brief provides a deeper analysis of these effects. It identifies also a series of immediate and sustained actions for the attention of governments and policymakers.

10 challenges of e-learning during COVID-19 & ways to solve them - Plitnichenko, Lisa (Jellyfish.tech, 2020)

School closures, government responses, and learning inequality around the world during COVID-19 - Vegas, Emiliana (The Brookings Institution, 2020)
According to UNESCO, as of April 14, 188 countries around the world have closed schools nationwide, affecting over 1.5 billion learners and representing more than 91 percent of total enrolled learn…
Keywords: ___working_potential_duplicate

Using Transparency To Create Accountability When School Buildings Are Closed and Tests Are Canceled - Gill, Brian P. (Education Next, 2020)
The districts and schools most likely to succeed in remote education will be those that provide a substantial amount of synchronous instruction and live student–teacher interaction.

Education Systems’ Response to COVID19 - World Bank (The World Bank, 2020)

Launching sign languages on the Global Digital Library - Global Digital Library (Global Digital Library, 2020)

Launching sign languages on the Global Digital Library – Global Digital Library - Global Digital Library (2020)

Schools’ readiness for digital learning in the eyes of principals. An analysis from PISA 2018 and its implications for the COVID19 (Coronavirus) crisis response - Moreno, Juan Manuel; Gortazar, Lucas (World Bank Blogs - Education for Global Development, 2020)
An analysis from PISA 2018 and its implications for the COVID19 crisis response

Designing the Education Workforce - Lee, Ju-Ho; Steer, Liesbet; Jimenez, Emmanuel; King, Elizabeth M.; Erikson, Eliza (Social Science Research Network, 2020)
There is rising evidence that traditional ways of teaching are failing to provide adequate learning opportunities and breadth of skills for the 21st century, likely to leave millions of children and young adults behind. The challenge of meeting the demands of each student with vastly different backgrounds and abilities within today’s models of education has limited the capacity of teachers and education systems to provide the personalized learning that students need. A new approach is required. The Education Commission is partnering with select countries, higher education institutions, schools and tech thought leaders to test the applicability and adaptability of “High-Touch High-Tech (HTHT)” learning in diverse contexts. The first pilot - currently in Vietnam - will incrementally expand to other select countries in Asia, Latin America, and Africa. HTHT learning is an opportunity for new collaborators to become part of a transformative effort to personalize learning for enhanced learner success through the application of Artificial Intelligence. Based on the report, “Transforming the Education Workforce: Learning Teams for a Learning Generation” that the Education Workforce Initiative (EWI) released during 2019 UN General Assembly, we propose new approaches for harnessing the potential of teachers and the broader education workforce to ensure HTHT learning and, more broadly, quality education for all students.
Keywords: Designing the Education Workforce; Eliza Erikson; Elizabeth M. King; Emmanuel Jimenez; Ju-Ho Lee; Liesbet Steer; SSRN

Arabic version of Design Thinking for Educators – Open Development & Education - Khalayleh, Abdullah (2020)
Keywords: dode_eth-src-dode; dode_eth-trf2-dode

Open educational practices of MOOC designers: embodiment and epistemic location - Adam, Taskeen (Distance Education, 2020)
This article reports the lack of epistemic diversity in producers of massive open online courses (MOOCs) through examining whose knowledges and what knowledges are forefronted in MOOCs. Through analysis of 27 semi-structured interviews, the study explored the relationship between South African MOOC designers and their open educational practices (OEP), questioning in what ways MOOC designers enact openness in their design, based on their own reasoning of what openness means. The study illustrates that MOOC designers create MOOCs that strongly link to who they are, what they value, and how they understand the world, highlighting the crucial need to have epistemically diverse MOOC designers from different cultures, value systems, and epistemologies, that critically reflect on their positionalities and subjectivities. From this, the study asserts a new way of looking at OEP where MOOC designers go beyond implementing OEP, to being someone who is open. I termed this the embodiment of openness.
Keywords: MOOC designer; OEP; critical consciousness; dode_eth-src-dode; dode_eth-trf2-dode; embodiment; epistemic location; positionality

Reaching Children & Students in Remote Locations - Aladin, Katija (2020)
During this educational shift from school to home, how are we addressing the needs of students in remote locations with little to no access to connectivity? From providing educational content through Whatsapp, Facebook messenger to accessing online content offline, these innovative ideas are helping children and families connect with teachers and lessons in other ways than online.

How ministries of education work with mobile operators, telecom providers, ISPs and others to increase access to digital resources during COVID19-driven school closures (Coronavirus) - Trucano, Michael (World Bank Blogs - Education for Global Development, 2020)
How can we – quickly – help students (and teachers) get online, and stay online?

From Ebola to coronavirus: education must not be forgotten in a health crisis - Watt, Ewan (Theirworld, 2020)
The challenge faced during the 2014 epidemic in West Africa of ensuring that children don’t fall between the cracks now confronts the whole world.

The relationships of learning independence, family support, facilities and service of institutions through quality of learning students - Dalas, Nove; Hadiyanto; Muhaimin (Journal of critical reviews, 2020)
Education is a conscious endeavor and aims to develop human quality. Education has a very important role because, without education, the transformation process and the actualization of knowledge are difficult to manifest. One of the things that supports education in schools is the guidance and counseling service. Meanwhile, the problems in the school environment are the lack of learning quality of students in line with the maximization of learning independence, family support, and self-development services students of MTs Negeri Jambi. This research was correlational research conducted in six state Islamic junior high schools in 1 Jambi city, Indonesia. The samples of the study were 886 students taken by using a stratified sampling technique, and randomly for each class of each school. The instruments used were questionnaires with 100-item statements by Likert scale while data were analyzed by using a descriptive analysis, Pearson correlation test, and multiple linear regression tests. The results showed that the quality of learning, learning independence, family support, and self-development services had not been carried out maximally at six state Islamic junior high schools. Students who were less independent, got less family support and minimum in obtaining self-development services would also had less maximum learning quality. Simultaneously the independence of study, family support, and facilities and service of the institutions were associated very closely with the quality of students' learning, and in partial increments of each learning independence variable, family support, and service Self-development impacts on improving learning quality.

Teachers’ Perceptions of Adopting Information and Communication Technologies in Teaching and Learning at Rural Secondary Schools in Eastern Cape, South Africa - Chisango, Grasia; Newlin Marongwe; Mtsi, Nomxolisi; Matyedi, Thembisile E (Africa Education Review, 2020)
There is an increasing global call to adopt information and communication technologies (ICTs) in teaching and learning. ICTs have become so essential that the South African government has introduced the e-education policy. ICTs are powerful enabling tools that play a significant role in the teaching and learning process. This article reports on a study that sought to explore teachers’ perceptions of adopting ICTs in teaching and learning at some secondary schools in Eastern Cape, South Africa. The purposive sampling technique was used to identify three secondary schools and five study participants from each school. Data was collected through face-to-face interviews and focus group discussions. A thematic approach was adopted to analyse and present the collected data. The study found that the teachers had a positive attitude towards the adoption of technologies and were ready to integrate ICTs in teaching and learning but they lacked the requisite ICT skills. The article concludes that ICT is an important vehicle in education, and further recommends the training of both teachers and learners in ICT usage.
Keywords: Communication technology; Communications technology; Curriculum development; Education policy; Education--Higher Education; Information technology; Learning; Pedagogy; Perceptions; Positive thought; Rural communities; Secondary schools; South Africa; Teachers; Teaching; curriculum interpretation; intervention strategies; pedagogy; professional development; support

COVID-19 reinforces the need for connectivity - Diop, Makhtar (2020)
Now is the time to work together to achieve the promise of new technologies for all and keep the world connected.

Phone survey on the Covid crisis in Senegal - Le Nestour, Alexis; Moscoviz, Laura; Mbaye, Samba (Centre for Global Development, 2020)
Keywords: ___working_potential_duplicate

Orientation and Mobility Practices within the Expanded Core Curriculum with Effective Parental Involvement of Visually Impaired Learners in Pakistan - Malik, Shazia; Manaf, Umi Kalthom Abdul (Bulletin of Education and Research, 2020)
The aim of this study was to observe Orientation and Mobility (O&M) with effective parental involvement within the Expanded Core Curriculum (ECC) for visually impaired learners (VILs) to make them independent in their environment in Pakistan. O&M practices have become significant as these are essential in independence and one of the main components of the ECC for VILs. This research explores O&M practices within the ECC from the perspectives of the teachers by using a qualitative approach and semi-structured interviews of O&M teachers were conducted from two public secondary level institutes of VILs Lahore, Pakistan. This paper endeavors to answer the question: What are the O&M practices within ECC that needed for VILs to enhance their independence in classroom settings? The findings of the study indicate that VILs need to use the knowledge of O&M practices to get their independence in their environment. Therefore, it is appropriate for O&M teachers to add the skills of mobility techniques under the subsection of O&M practices within the guidelines of ECC. The VILs seemed to benefit from immediate instructions from their O&M teachers. However, the VILs still need more help in O&M practices with effective parental involvement under the guidance of ECC. So, in the context of the study, it is the urgent need of VIL to align their O&M practices with mentioned instructions in ECC.
Keywords: Assistive Technology; Core Curriculum; Foreign Countries; Orientation; Parent Participation; Secondary School Students; Skill Development; Visual Impairments; Visually Impaired Mobility; ⛔ No DOI found

Guidance note 1: Inclusive Digital Learning (Humanity and Inclusion, 2020)

Framework for reopening schools - UNESCO; UNICEF; World Bank; World Food Programme (2020)

COVID-19 and Its Implications for Protecting Children Online - UNICEF; UNESCO; WHO; UNODC; ITU; End Violence Against Children; We Protect Global Alliance (2020)

Covid-19 school closures around the world will hit girls hardest - Giannini, Stefania; Albrectsen, Anne-Birgitte (UNESCO, 2020)
As COVID-19 forces school closures in 185 countries, Plan International and UNESCO warn of the potential for increased drop-out rates which will disproportionately affect adolescent girls, further entrench gender gaps in education and lead to increased risk of sexual exploitation, early pregnancy and early and forced marriage.

Evidence on efforts to mitigate the negative educational impact of past disease outbreaks - Hallgarten, Joe (K4D Helpdesk Report, 2020)
This rapid review focusses on efforts to mitigate the educational impact of previous disease outbreaks, concentrating on school-age learners. It follows two companion papers that reviewed broader secondary effects and attempts to mitigate them (Rohwerder, 2020; Kelly, 2020). It aims to inform the education sector’s responses to the COVID-19 crisis, although there are important differences between previous disease outbreaks and the COVID-19 situation. For instance, unlike Ebola, transmission of COVID-19 is asymptomatic, and the outbreak is global. This review finds a limited range of quantitative evidence on the educational impact of disease outbreaks, and minimal evidence on mitigation measures or their impact. Although several ‘lessons learned’ documents include guidelines and recommendations (and now complemented by many education-focused COVID-responsive blogs), this review finds that these are rarely based on evidence of impact of particular interventions, or on evidence of the impact of different approaches to action, co-ordinations, funding or prioritisation. The review found four particular evidence gaps: First, how distance learning materials can support learners who do not have access to family members with the skills or time to help them. Second, a gap in the use of screen or internet-enabled technologies to support alternative education. Third (and related), a gap in remote teacher training and development during school closures. Finally, the review analysed gender and equity issues but did not find any literature that explored disability. The education in emergencies literature has an emerging evidence base across all four themes within refugee education contexts, but has not yet learnt from or applied this evidence to disease outbreak situations.
Keywords: ___working_potential_duplicate; ⛔ No DOI found

Making the Grade: The Sensitivity of Education Program Effectiveness to Input Choices and Outcome Measures - Kerwin, Jason; Thornton, Rebecca (Jason Kerwin, 2020)
Keywords: C:Uganda; NULP; ___working_potential_duplicate

COVID-19 and school closures: What can countries learn from past emergencies? - Winthrop, Rebecca (Brookings, 2020)
The education in emergencies community can offer good practices for countries battling COVID-19 where education has been disrupted for a protracted period.

Education Ministry creates special online study platform for SHS students (2020)
The Ministry for Education has launched a special online study platform for Senior High School students. Ever since Covid-19 halted school activities the Education Ministry together with the Ghana Education Service has stepped up efforts to help...

As Schools Close Over Coronavirus, Protect Kids’ Privacy in Online Learning (Human Rights Watch, 2020)
The educational disruption caused by the coronavirus pandemic is unprecedented in speed and scale. As of today, over 160 countries have closed schools. Education authorities are scrambling to provide remote learning for more than 87% of the world’s student population now missing class.

The difference between emergency remote teaching and online learning - Hodges, Charles; Moore, Stephanie; Lockee, Barbara; Trust, Torrey; Bond, Mark (EDUCAUSE Review, 2020)
Well-planned online learning experiences are meaningfully different from courses offered online in response to a crisis or disaster. Colleges and universities working to maintain instruction during the COVID-19 pandemic should understand those differences when evaluating this emergency remote teaching.

Rapid Evidence Summary on Mass Communication | - Inter-agency Network for Education in Emergencies (INEE). (2020)

Rapid Evidence Summary on Mass Communication - International Rescue Committee (International Rescue Committee, 2020)

Remote Learning, Distance Education and Online Learning During the COVID19 Pandemic: A Resource List by the World Bank's Edtech Team - World Bank (World Bank, 2020)
Keywords: ___working_potential_duplicate

School’s Out: Now What? - Carvalho, Shelby; Crawfurd, Lee (Center For Global Development, 2020)
Using a newly assembled database, here’s what we found about the scale and timing of school closures, as well as how countries are adjusting to distance learning.
Keywords: ___working_potential_duplicate

COVID-19: Most marginalised children will bear the brunt of unprecedented school closures around the world - Save the Children (Save the Children International, 2020)
Governments and communities must act now to ensure that millions of vulnerable children do not lose out on their education as schools close their gates to try and contain the Coronavirus outbreak, warns Save the Children. More than 120 countries have already introduced nation-wide school and...

Radio Education: Physical Distance but Social Solidarity | INEE - Minetti, Elena (2020)

Replay - Salle des Profs - Pr : Astou Mbène – Intégralité - Télé Futurs Medias (TFM) (2020)

Handbook on Facilitating Flexible Learning During Educational Disruption - Huang, Ronghuai; Tlili, Ahmed; Yang, Junfeng; Wang, Huanhuan; Zhang, Mahua; Gao, Bojun; Lu, Hang; Chang, Ting-Wen; Cheng, Qian; Yin, Xiayu; Cheng, Wei (2020)

Can Facebook groups enhance continuing professional development of teachers? Lessons from Kenya - Bett, Harry; Makewa, Lazarus (Asia-Pacific Journal of Teacher Education, 2020)
Continuing Professional Development (CPD) for teachers in Kenya suffers from challenges such as inadequate resources, poor planning, competing interests, among others. Besides being traditional in approach, most CPD sessions are far between to be meaningfully helpful. With increasing uptake of technology and number of social media users in Kenya, Facebook can be a potential platform to enhance teachers’ professional development. This exploratory cross-sectional survey focussed on discussions teachers had in the month of February 2015 on one Facebook Group named ‘Teachers of English’. A directed content analysis of the 647 posts following Shulman’s category of teacher knowledge base revealed that interactions on the group centred on the teaching of English and Literature, as well as on other education-related matters. This study concludes that that Facebook Groups can be fertile avenues for teachers’ ongoing professional development, especially in developing countries where such opportunities are scarce.
Keywords: Content analysis; Education--Teaching Methods And Curriculum; English teachers; Facebook Groups; Kenya; Professional development; Social networks; Teacher education; Teachers; __:import:02; __:match:final; __:matched; __:study_id:2425933; __finaldtb; professional development

Mongolia leads in organizing TV classes for children - Munkhzul, A (Montsame (Mongolia), 2020)

Adverse consequences of school closures - UNESCO (UNESCO, 2020)
School closures - even when temporary - carry high social and economic costs. The disruptions they cause touch people across communities, but their impact is particularly severe for disadvantaged boys and girls and their families. Some of the reasons why school closures are so harmful are listed below. While the list is far from comprehensive, it helps clarify why school closures should matter to all of us. Interrupted learning: Schooling provides essential learning and when schools close, children and youth are deprived opportunities for growth and development.

Evaluating the Use of Radios to Promote Learning in Liberia During COVID-19 - Bulat, Dr. Jennae (RTI International, 2020)

Making the Grade: The Sensitivity of Education Program Effectiveness to Input Choices and Outcome Measures - Kerwin, Jason T.; Thornton, Rebecca L. (The Review of Economics and Statistics, 2020)
This paper demonstrates the acute sensitivity of education program effectiveness to the choices of inputs and outcome measures, using a randomized evaluation of a mother-tongue literacy program. The program raises reading scores by 0.64SDs and writing scores by 0.45SDs. A reduced-cost version instead yields statistically-insignificant reading gains and some large negative effects (-0.33SDs) on advanced writing. We combine a conceptual model of education production with detailed classroom observations to examine the mechanisms driving the results; we show they could be driven by the program initially lowering productivity before raising it, and potentially by missing complementary inputs in the reduced-cost version.
Keywords: NULP; ___working_potential_duplicate

Reducing distance through online international collaboration - Schreiber, Brooke R; Jansz, Mihiri (ELT Journal, 2020)
Online and hybrid courses offer many benefits for ESL teacher education, but can be hampered by ‘transactional distance’, a lack of interpersonal closeness which can cause misunderstanding and disengagement. This article describes a pedagogical project in which in-service teachers studying in a distance-learning MA TESL programme in Sri Lanka participated in an asynchronous discussion forum with peers from a university in New York City to discuss varieties of World Englishes. The project increased dialogue between learners, and between learners and the instructor, providing space for informal interactions through text, images, and video, as well as multiple methods for responding to feedback, ultimately reducing transactional distance. This article discusses the benefits of the project as well as the pedagogical and technological challenges, offering suggestions for other MA TESL educators about implementing such collaborations.

Reducing distance through online international collaboration - Schreiber, Brooke R; Jansz, Mihiri (ELT Journal, 2020)
Online and hybrid courses offer many benefits for ESL teacher education, but can be hampered by ‘transactional distance’, a lack of interpersonal closeness which can cause misunderstanding and disengagement. This article describes a pedagogical project in which in-service teachers studying in a distance-learning MA TESL programme in Sri Lanka participated in an asynchronous discussion forum with peers from a university in New York City to discuss varieties of World Englishes. The project increased dialogue between learners, and between learners and the instructor, providing space for informal interactions through text, images, and video, as well as multiple methods for responding to feedback, ultimately reducing transactional distance. This article discusses the benefits of the project as well as the pedagogical and technological challenges, offering suggestions for other MA TESL educators about implementing such collaborations.

COVID-19 Educational Disruption and Response - UNESCO (UNESCO, 2020)
A record number of children and youth are not attending school because of closures mandated by governments in an attempt to slow the spread of COVID-19.

Sustainability & Corporate Responsibility Report - Ericsson (Ericsson.com, 2020)
Our Sustainability and Corporate Responsibility Report includes all the highlights of our sustainability performance.

Impact of use of technology on student learning outcomes: Evidence from a large-scale experiment in India - Naik, Gopal; Chitre, Chetan; Bhalla, Manaswini; Rajan, Jothsna (World Development, 2020)
One of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG-4) adopted by the United Nations focuses on ensuring inclusive and equitable quality education for all. Most research on impact of technology on learning outcomes depends on designs that require low student-to-computer ratio and extensive retraining of teachers. These requirements make the designs difficult to implement on a large scale and hence are limited in terms of inclusivity and ability to ‘provide equitable opportunity for all’. Our paper is the first to evaluate an intervention design that is aimed at dealing with these concerns. We conduct a large-scale randomised field experiment in 1823 rural government schools in India that uses technology-aided teaching to replace one-third of traditional classroom teaching. Even with high student-to-computer ratios and minimal teacher training, we observe a positive impact on student learning outcomes. The study thus presents a low cost, resource-light design, which can be implemented in a developing country on a large scale to address the problem of poor learning outcomes, thereby making the intervention inclusive and equitable in line with the spirit of SDG-4.
Keywords: Field experiment; India; Quality of learning; SDG-4; School education; Technology-aided-teaching

Making Vision 2041 a Reality: Perspective Plan of Bangladesh 2021-2041 - General Economics Division, Bangladesh Planning Commission, Ministry of Planning, Government of the People’s Republic of Bangladesh (2020)

GSMA Connected Women: the mobile gender gap report 2020 - GSMA (2020)

Making Vision 2041 a Reality: Perspective plan of Bangladesh 2021-2041 - Ministry of Planning (Ministry of Planning,Government of the People’s Republic of Bangladesh, 2020)

Handbook on Facilitating Flexible Learning During Educational Disruption - UNESCO IITE (UNESCO IITE, 2020)
As COVID-19 continues spreading in many countries of the world, how to keep learning in disruption has become a major challenge to the global education community. As stated by UNESCO... Read more Handbook on Facilitating Flexible Learning During Educational Disruption

UNICEF Yemen Country Office Humanitarian Situation Report (Reporting Period: 1 - 31 March 2020) [EN/AR] - Yemen - UNICEF (ReliefWeb, 2020)
Arabic Situation Report on Yemen about Contributions, Coordination, Children, IDPs, Epidemic, Flash Flood and more; published on 12 May 2020 by UNICEF

Mobile Phone Technologies in Coping with the Challenges and Opportunities of CPEC by the Youth of Rural Mountainous Areas of Gilgit-Baltistan, Pakistan - Rahim, Sabit; Qutoshi, Sadruddin Bahadur; Sahar, Gul; Jabeen, Gul; Ali, Imran (Mobile Information Systems, 2020)
The study aims to explore the access of mobile phone, emerging technologies, and use of the mobile phone by the youth of Gilgit-Baltistan (GB), Pakistan, for learning and safety and security purposes. Structured questionnaires were used to collect the data. The descriptive statistics was employed to test the research model. Among the 300 distributed sample size, 272 participants responded back including 133 male and 139 female students of Karakoram International University (KIU) from eight districts of GB as research participants for data collection. Only 1 male and 6 females responded that they do not have their own mobile phone, comprising of 90.6% response rate. The results show that 97% of students of rural mountainous areas own a mobile phone. The study contributes valuable findings about the access and positive use of mobile phones for learning and safety and security purposes. The result also shows that the youth of GB have enough skills of mobile phone technologies to cope with the future challenges of China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) by taking advantages of China Pakistan Information Corridor (CPIC is a fiber optics cable laid down from the China border to Islamabad Pakistan for the purpose of providing the fast internet facility including 5G). This is the baseline survey and future study will be based on this survey.
Keywords: ___working_potential_duplicate

Classification of Fragile and Conflict-Affected Situations - World Bank (2020)

UIS releases more timely country-level data for SDG 4 on education - UNESCO Institute for Statistics (2020)
The UNESCO Institute for Statistics (UIS) has just updated its global database with more recent country-level data to monitor progress towards the Sustainable Development Goal on education (SDG 4). UIS global education database While the global numbers and regional averages on key indicators such as out-of-school rates have not changed since the previous release in September 2019, we have added new country-level data to provide a more complete and timely picture of the education situation facing children, youth and adults around the world....

Do civil service performance incentives work: Evidence from Ghana and Zambia - Williams, Martin (International Growth Centre, 2020)

Twelve African EdTech Companies Named as First Fellows at Centre for Innovative Teaching and Learning in ICT - Mastercard Foundation (2020)

Twelve African EdTech Companies Named as First Fellows at Centre for Innovative Teaching and Learning in ICT - Mastercard Foundation (Mastercard Foundation, 2020)

Learning-adjusted years of schooling (LAYS): Defining a new macro measure of education - Filmer, Deon; Rogers, Halsey; Angrist, Noam; Sabarwal, Shwetlena (Economics of Education Review, 2020)
The standard summary metric of education-based human capital used in macro analyses is a quantity-based one: The average number of years of schooling in a population. But as recent research shows, students in different countries who have completed the same number of years of school often have vastly different learning outcomes. We therefore propose a new summary measure, the Learning-Adjusted Years of Schooling (LAYS). This measure combines quantity and quality of schooling into a single easy-to-understand metric of progress, revealing considerably larger cross-country education gaps than the standard metric. We show that the comparisons produced by this measure are robust to different ways of adjusting for learning and that LAYS is consistent with other evidence, including other approaches to quality adjustment. Like other learning measures, LAYS reflects learning, and barriers to learning, both inside and outside of school; also, cross-country comparability of LAYS rests on assumptions related to learning trajectories and the validity, reliability, and comparability of test data. Acknowledging these limitations, we argue that LAYS nonetheless improves on the standard metric in key ways.
Keywords: Education; Human capital; Learning; Returns to education; Schooling; Test Scores; ___working_potential_duplicate

Blended learning and Syrian refugees' empowerment through a capability approach lens - Abdelfattah Ahmed Younes, Mona (Lancaster University, 2020)
This study analyses the learning experiences of three Syrian refugee youth who enrolled in and completed blended learning (BL) programmes in Jordan, in order to explicate how BL has/or has not empowered those refugees. To achieve this objective, the following research questions framed this study: Does blended learning empower Syrian refugee youth living in Jordan? 1. Is blended learning, in the case of Syrian refugee youth, an empowering capability? 2. Does blended learning help Syrian refugee youth to overcome their restrictive ‘rules of the game’? 3. Does blended learning improve Syrian refugee youth’s resource portfolio? This study followed a case study approach. Three Syrian youth, each of whom attended a different BL programme, were interviewed between December 2018 and March 2019. While all three cases expressed aspirations that are education-bound, this study shows some difference in the aspirations of males and females and of urban refugees versus those residing in the camps. BL has been for all three cases a feasible learning opportunity. Programme providers designed the courses in a manner that accommodated to refugees’ locations, time, and economic status. Social media disseminated information about educational opportunities and possessing smartphones made following up with lectures and assignments possible and easy. The investigated BL programmes proved also to be enjoyable due to their constructive, learner-centred and collaborative approach, and competent facilitators. However, this finding does not indicate that those programmes were “empowering”. Restrictive legislations that constrain refugees’ work, movement, and lives, as well as patriarchal traditions that hampered females’ choices of education, were “rules of the game” that hindered students’ ability to fully benefit from the provided programmes. Despite the development of oral and public speaking, employability, and English language skills and despite the enhancement of self-esteem, confidence, and respect towards others, those programmes did not lead to refugees’ full empowerment.
Keywords: Google Scholar/ "mobile learning" "refugee education"; RER theme_pedagogies and modalities

The state of education in urban slums of Bangladesh - Khondoker, Zarine Anan (BRAC Institute of Governance and Development, 2020)

Understanding access to education in Nigeria - GRID3 (GRID3, 2020)
To support Nigeria’s Universal Basic Educational Commission (UBEC) in improving access to education, GRID3 Nigeria used geospatial data to analyse the location of current schools to Nigeria's school-age population and recommend new school locations.

Chinese education authorities to broadcast lessons on television - CGTN (2020)

Language counts when learning mathematics with interactive apps - Outhwaite, Laura A.; Gulliford, Anthea; Pitchford, Nicola J. (British Journal of Educational Technology, 2020)
When available in multiple languages, educational apps can deliver the same mathematics instruction in the child’s first language or different language of instruction. This pilot study examined the ...

Responding to Iraq’s learning crisis - Ali, Laila (UNICEF Connect, 2020)
Amidst the devastation in Mosul's Old City, UNICEF supports the rehabilitation of primary education for a safe environment that’s conducive to learning.

Improving teacher accountability in Pakistan’s rural schools - Asad, Saher; Habib, Masooma; Karachiwalla, Naureen; Kosec, Katrina; Leaver, Claire; Ur Rehman, Attique (International Growth Centre, 2020)
Pakistan has extremely low learning levels and poor education service delivery is a driving factor. The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) government has expressed a strong desire for evidence on how to design evaluation and oversight systems for the education sector, with the goal of improving learning. Accordingly, we conducted an International Growth Centre (IGC) supported study …

Ghost schools can be traced through RTMS in Balochistan - Quetta Voice (Quetta Voice Breaking News, English News, Technology, Health, 2020)
The real time monitoring system (RTMS) proved to be an effective system in tracing of closed/ghost schools across Balochistan. The system was established

The potential of Accelerated Learning Programmes (ALPs) for conflict-ridden countries and regions: Lessons learned from an experience in Iraq - Bilagher, Moritz; Kaushik, Amit (International Review of Education, 2020)
Accelerated learning programmes (ALPs) provide a fast-track second-chance opportunity to complete formal education, enabling disadvantaged children and youth to catch up with their peers. In 2005, after a preliminary pilot phase, the Government of Iraq, in partnership with the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) implemented an ALP initially in 10 of Iraq’s 18 governorates with the intention of providing an estimated 50,000 out-of-school, often traumatised and disenfranchised children aged 12–18 years with an opportunity to complete the six-year primary cycle in three years. This experience generated some insights which may still be of practical use today in other conflict-ridden countries and regions. In order to highlight how the lessons learned just over 10 years ago are relevant to similar situations elsewhere today, this article discusses the findings of an independent evaluation of the programme in 2008. The available evaluation data imply that this ALP addressed a significant need and was appreciated by the target group, with 75 % of learners stating that they liked the ALP very much. Around 90 % of ALP graduates continued either in secondary education, or studying in other programmes, joined an apprenticeship scheme or found employment. Both survey and interview data suggest that this ALP did more than create educational opportunities for young persons; it also helped young people obtain a confident perspective for their own future. Consequently, this made them less vulnerable to participation in subversive activities (such as, for example, being recruited into militias). This is a lesson not just relevant to Iraq at the time, but to a wide range of unstable contexts across the world.
Keywords: Accelerated Learning Programmes (ALPs); Iraq; Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 4; access to education; education in (post-)conflict environments; education in emergencies

Technology in education in low-income countries: Problem analysis and focus of the Hub's work - Hennessy, Sara; Jordan, Katy; Hassler, Bjoern; Hollow, David; Brugha, Meghan; Jamieson Eberhardt, Molly; Sabates, Ricardo (2020)
An output by the EdTech Hub - #EdTechHub, https://edtechhub.org

Hub Heroes, our newest project. - Hello World (Hello World, 2020)
Hello World has a new programme, Hub Heroes. This programme will exponentially increase literacy and numeracy for children at our hubs AND empower mothers in our Hub communities to take advantage of the technology and connectivity at the Hello Hub.

Scientists at DSTI go the extra mile to make it easier for children to get to school - Directorate of Science, Technology & Innovation (Sierra Leone) (2020)
Mike Fabrikant, a software developer from Washington D.C., is embedded within the data science team at the Directorate of Science, Technology, and Innovation (DSTI) to support systems delivery. His workRead More

See states for Nigeria where schools no go resume on January 18 - BBC News Pidgin (BBC News Pidgin, 2020)
Some state governors, lawmakers no buy di idea of school resumption wey Ngeria government bin give go ahead to resume on January 18
Keywords: Education; Nigeria

Thoughts on “Education and digitisation in development cooperation” - Unwin, Tim (Tim Unwin's Blog, 2020)
Recently I was asked by the GFA Consulting Group to provide some short comments and reflections (just a few sentences) in response to four questions, the answers to which will be incorporated as pa…

The Digital Divide - Dijk, Jan van (John Wiley & Sons, 2020)
Contrary to optimistic visions of a free internet for all, the problem of the ‘digital divide’ – the disparity between those with access to internet technology and those without – has persisted for close to twenty-five years.In this textbook, Jan van Dijk considers the state of digital inequality and what we can do to tackle it. Through an accessible framework based on empirical research, he explores the motivations and challenges of seeking access and the development of requisite digital skills. He addresses key questions such as: Does digital inequality reduce or reinforce existing, traditional inequalities? Does it create new, previously unknown social inequalities? While digital inequality affects all aspects of society and the problem is here to stay, Van Dijk outlines policies we can put in place to mitigate it.The Digital Divide is required reading for students and scholars of media, communication, sociology, and related disciplines, as well as for policymakers.
Keywords: Social Science / Popular Culture; Social Science / Sociology / General

Community of practice (Wikipedia, 2020)
A community of practice (CoP) is a group of people who share a craft or a profession. The concept was first proposed by cognitive anthropologist Jean Lave and educational theorist Etienne Wenger in their 1991 book Situated Learning (Lave & Wenger 1991). Wenger then significantly expanded on the concept in his 1998 book Communities of Practice (Wenger 1998). A CoP can evolve naturally because of the members' common interest in a particular domain or area, or it can be created deliberately with the goal of gaining knowledge related to a specific field. It is through the process of sharing information and experiences with the group that members learn from each other, and have an opportunity to develop personally and professionally (Lave & Wenger 1991). CoPs can exist in physical settings, for example, a lunch room at work, a field setting, a factory floor, or elsewhere in the environment, but members of CoPs do not have to be co-located. They form a "virtual community of practice" (VCoP) (Dubé, Bourhis & Jacob 2005) when they collaborate online, such as within discussion boards and newsgroups, or a "mobile community of practice" (MCoP) (Kietzmann et al. 2013) when members communicate with one another via mobile phones and participate in community work on the go. Communities of practice are not new phenomena: this type of learning has existed for as long as people have been learning and sharing their experiences through storytelling. The idea is rooted in American pragmatism, especially C. S. Peirce's concept of the "community of inquiry" (Shields 2003), but also John Dewey's principle of learning through occupation (Wallace 2007).

Curriculum flexibility in a blended curriculum - Jonker, Herma; März, Virginie; Voogt, Joke (Australasian Journal of Educational Technology, 2020)
This study offers insights into the processes that play a role in realising curriculum flexibility. Curriculum flexibility is conceptualised in terms of adaptability and accessibility of the curriculum to students’ needs and capabilities. To realise curriculum flexibility, the teacher education institution in this study designed a blended curriculum with face-to-face and online components. This flexible curriculum aimed at increasing student enrolment and allowing for variety in students’ graduation portfolios. Through semi-structured interviews with 10 teacher educators, conditions that could foster or hinder the realisation of flexibility were investigated. Results indicate that different contextual, teacher-, and student-related conditions were perceived to affect (further) curriculum flexibility. Furthermore, teacher educators identified several challenges related to these influential conditions, which were recognised as tensions. Based on a discussion of these findings, recommendations for research and practice are given.
Keywords: blended curriculum; case study research; collaborative design; curriculum flexibility; curriculum implementation; perceived curriculum; qualitative research

Moving beyond the predictable failure of Ed-Tech initiatives - Sancho-Gil, Juana M.; Rivera-Vargas, Pablo; Miño-Puigcercós, Raquel (Learning, Media and Technology, 2020)
The development of Information and Communication Technology has created waves of excitement about its power to fix educational problems and improve learning results, prompting a succession of policy efforts to integrate digital technology into education. Educators, schools and corporations are increasingly driving these initiatives. This article makes the argument that a narrow vision of digital technology, which both ignores the complexity of education and wastes valuable public resources, is becoming an obstacle to significant improvement and transformation in education. Utilising our research and experience in the field of educational technology, this paper problematises the common elision of ‘technology’ and ‘digital technology’. From this basis, we then critically reflect on various common approaches to introducing digital technology in education under the guise of promoting equality and digital inclusion. These include national government-led programmes, more recent trends for local school-led initiatives, and the role of non-formal education initiatives led by corporations/foundations. Amidst the varying surface-level ‘failure’ and/or ‘success’ of these approaches, we point to limited underpinning ‘information and knowledge society’ logics in framing the application of digital technology to education. As such we conclude by considering the educational challenges for future Ed-Tech initiatives.
Keywords: Educational change; digital technology corporations; educational challenges; educational policies; school improvement

Unlocking Data to Tell the Story of Education in Africa: Webinar Summary & Synthesis - Adam, Taskeen; Agyapong, Samuel; Asare, Samuel; Heady, Lucy; Wacharia, Wairimu; Mjomba, Renaldah; Mugo, John; Mukiria, Faith; Munday, Gemma (Zenodo, 2020)
[No description available.]

Self-regulated learning in online learning environments: strategies for remote learning - Carter, Jr Richard Allen; Rice, Mary; Yang, Sohyun; Jackson, Haidee A. (Information and Learning Sciences, 2020)
Purpose Many teachers and students in the USA and various parts of the world are migrating some aspects of education online out of necessity. The purpose of this paper is to identify and describe strategies of the self-regulated learning (SRL) framework for K-12 students learning in online environments to support remote learning with online and digital tools during the COVID-19 pandemic.Design/methodology/approach The SRL framework (Zimmerman, 2008) has been used consistently to support students in learning to work independently. This framework highlights three phases: planning, performing and evaluating. Previous research in K-12 online learning has yielded specific strategies that are useful. The paper identified and described the strategies to an audience seeking answers on how to meet the needs of students in online learning environment.Findings The main types of strategies that have emerged from previous studies include asking students to consider how they learn online, providing pacing support, monitoring engagement and supporting families.Originality/value Although the social crisis of COVID-19 is unique, prior research in online learning may be useful for supporting teacher practice and suggesting future research. Developing SRL skills of students will ensure the effectiveness of online learning that the field of education may ultimately focus on in the future.

“Being on the wrong side of the digital divide”: seeking technological interventions for education in Northeast Nigeria - Martens, Marianne; Hajibayova, Lala; Campana, Kathleen; Rinnert, Gretchen Caldwell; Caniglia, Joanne; Bakori, Isa Garba; Kamiyama, Tsukuru; Mohammed, Liman Audu; Mupinga, Davison M.; Oh, Olivia Jeonghwa (Aslib Journal of Information Management, 2020)
Purpose This paper aims to report the initial findings of a project aiming to re-establish basic education in conflict-ravaged states in Northeastern Nigeria and to improve education providers' ability to plan and deliver basic educational services. The authors present a preliminary analysis of Nigerian teachers' access to information communication technology (ICT), their technology skills, as well associated national ICT policies. Design/methodology/approach This case study uses results from two co-designed tools, administered using KoboToolbox to Education Managers in the first instance, and teachers in the second. The data from the tools form the basis for analysis. Findings In the first instance, educational managers reported a lack of access to technology, the internet and to training and professional development. In the second instance, teachers reported issues present in the classroom environment, including poor infrastructure, a lack of resources and over-crowded classrooms. Very few teachers had access to computers or to the internet. Research limitations/implications The 33 educational managers represent a small sample size and may not be fully representative of the region covered. The ICT Capacity Audit tool listed Excel in two different areas – basic Excel skills and using Excel for data analysis – which could have caused confusion for participants. The data collection should be repeated, expanded and compared for consistency. For the team, changes to the proposed (SENSE) box content meant that we were not able to deliver low-tech tools, such as Boogie Boards, or high-tech tools, such as tablets, to schools. Originality/value Despite seemingly insurmountable challenges, the research team identified low-tech tools as a feasible resource in the classroom. Existing tools, such as teachers' smartphones and use of the WhatsApp application, can be used for sharing educational resources and providing teacher training. This paper argues that Nigeria needs up-to-date national ICT policies to guide in-country efforts to develop implementation of information technology initiatives for education.

Online teaching-learning in higher education during lockdown period of COVID-19 pandemic - Mishra, Lokanath; Gupta, Tushar; Shree, Abha (International Journal of Educational Research Open, 2020)
The whole educational system from elementary to tertiary level has been collapsed during the lockdown period of the novel coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) not only in India but across the globe. This study is a portrayal of online teaching-learning modes adopted by the Mizoram University for the teaching-learning process and subsequent semester examinations. It looks forward to an intellectually enriched opportunity for further future academic decision-making during any adversity. The intended purpose of this paper seeks to address the required essentialities of online teaching-learning in education amid the COVID-19 pandemic and how can existing resources of educational institutions effectively transform formal education into online education with the help of virtual classes and other pivotal online tools in this continually shifting educational landscape. The paper employs both quantitative and qualitative approach to study the perceptions of teachers and students on online teaching-learning modes and also highlighted the implementation process of online teaching-learning modes. The value of this paper is to draw a holistic picture of ongoing online teaching-learning activities during the lockdown period including establishing the linkage between change management process and online teaching-learning process in education system amid the COVID-19 outbreak so as to overcome the persisting academic disturbance and consequently ensure the resumption of educational activities and discourses as a normal course of procedure in the education system.
Keywords: COVID-19; Lockdown period; Online education; Online teaching-learning modes; Outbreak; Pandemic; Perception

Economic role of education in agriculture: evidence from rural Vietnam - Ninh, Le Khuong (Journal of Economics and Development, 2020)
Purpose This paper investigates the impact of education on output of rice farming households in Vietnam. Design/methodology/approach Given the literature review, this paper specifies three empirical models (i.e. linear constant coefficient model, partially nonlinear model and linear varied coefficient model) with variables that well describe the mechanism through which education affects output. The data were collected from 901 rice farming households randomly selected out of ten provinces and city in the Mekong River Delta (MRD) of Vietnam. The models are estimated using ordinary least squares (OLS) and Robinson's (1988) double residual estimators. Findings Estimates of the empirical models show that seed, fertilizer, labor and farm size have significant impacts on output of rice farming households while pesticide and herbicide do not. Education is also found to have a positive effect on output of rice farming households because it helps them better manage farms of larger size via combining various inputs in a more desirable way. Originality/value This paper confirms the positive impact of education on agricultural output, which implies that policies aiming to provide better education to rural people will greatly enhance their income as well as trigger long-term economic and agricultural growth.
Keywords: Agriculture; Education; Household; Input; Output; Rice; Rural; Schooling; Vietnam

Challenges in the online component of blended learning: A systematic review - Rasheed, Abubakar Rasheed; Kamsin, Amirrudin; Abdullah, Nor Aniza (Computers & Education, 2020)
Blended learning is widely regarded as an approach that combines the benefits afforded by face-to-face and online learning components. However, this approach of combining online with face-to-face instructional components have raised concerns over the years. Several studies have highlighted the overall challenges of blended learning mode of instruction as a whole, but there has been no clear understanding of the challenges that exist in the online component of blended learning. Thus, a systematic review of literature was conducted with the aim of identifying the challenges in the online component of blended learning from students, teachers and educational institutions perspectives. Self-regulation challenges and challenges in using learning technology are the key challenges that students face. Teachers challenges are mainly on the use of technology for teaching. Challenges in the provision of suitable instructional technology; and effective training support to teachers are the main challenges faced by educational institutions. This review highlights the need for further investigations to address students, teachers and educational institutions challenges in blended learning. In addition, we proposed some recommendations for future research.
Keywords: Adult learning; Improving classroom teaching; Pedagogical issues; Teaching/Learning strategies

Valuation of incentives to recruit and retain teachers in rural schools: Evidence from a choice experiment in Cambodia and Laos - Sisouphanthong, Viriyasack; Suruga, Terukazu; Kyophilavong, Phouphet (Cogent Education, 2020)
To provide an appropriate incentive for teaching profession, the important questions are “how much should we pay?” and “which factors influence potential teachers’ decision the most?” This research evaluates the factors that discourage and encourage potential teachers to join the profession in Cambodia and Laos by applying a discrete choice experiment to analysis teacher trainees’ preferences for school location, classroom condition, non-teaching professions, and indirect monetary incentives. The result highlights reasons and a possibility of potential teachers to leave the educational system.
Keywords: Cambodia; Laos; discrete choice experiment; incentives; teacher recruitment

Women's empowerment in action: Evidence from a randomized control trial in Africa - Bandiera, Oriana; Buehren, Niklas; Burgess, Robin; Goldstein, Markus; Gulesci, Selim; Rasul, Imran; Sulaiman, Munshi (American Economic Journal: Applied Economics, 2020)
We evaluate a multifaceted policy intervention attempting to jump-start adolescent women's empowerment in Uganda by simultaneously providing them vocational training and information on sex, reproduction, and marriage. We find that four years postintervention, adolescent girls in treated communities are more likely to be self-employed. Teen pregnancy, early entry into marriage/cohabitation, and the share of girls reporting sex against their will fall sharply. The results highlight the potential of a multifaceted program that provides skills transfers as a viable and cost-effective policy intervention to improve the economic and social empowerment of adolescent girls over a four-year horizon.
Keywords: Child Care; Children; Domestic Abuse, Fertility; Education and Economic Development, Marriage; Family Planning; Family Structure; Human Development; Income Distribution; Labor Productivity, Economic Development: Human Resources; Marital Dissolution; Migration; Non-labor Discrimination, Labor Demand, Human Capital; Occupational Choice; Skills; Youth, Economics of Gender

Rethinking education in the digital age - Braun, Anette; März, Anna; Mertens, Fabian; Nisser, Annerose (European Parliamentary Research Service, 2020)

Compendium of Social Protection Research in Bangladesh - Government of Bangladesh (The General Economics Division (GED), Bangladesh Planning Commission, 2020)

The Last-Mile Internet Connectivity Toolkit: Solutions to Connect the Unconnected in Developing Countries - ITU (2020)

Summative Evaluation of GPE's Country-level Support to Education. Bangladesh - Results for Development (Universalia, 2020)

Reducing distance through online international collaboration - Schreiber, Brooke R.; Jansz, Mihiri (ELT Journal, 2020)
Online and hybrid courses offer many benefits for ESL teacher education, but can be hampered by 'transactional distance', a lack of interpersonal closeness which can cause misunderstanding and disengagement. This article describes a pedagogical project in which in-service teachers studying in a distance-learning MA TESL programme in Sri Lanka participated in an asynchronous discussion forum with peers from a university in New York City to discuss varieties of World Englishes. The project increased dialogue between learners, and between learners and the instructor, providing space for informal interactions through text, images, and video, as well as multiple methods for responding to feedback, ultimately reducing transactional distance. This article discusses the benefits of the project as well as the pedagogical and technological challenges, offering suggestions for other MA TESL educators about implementing such collaborations.
Keywords: Asynchronous Communication; Computer Mediated Communication; DISTANCE education; Distance Education; ENGLISH as a foreign language; ENGLISH language education; ERIC, Current Index to Journals in Education (CIJE); Educational Benefits; Educational Cooperation; English (Second Language); Feedback (Response); Foreign Countries; Group Discussion; Higher Education; IN-service training of teachers; Inservice Teacher Education; International Cooperation; LEARNING; Language Variation; Masters Programs; New York (New York); Online Courses; Peer Groups; Postsecondary Education; Program Descriptions; Second Language Instruction; Second Language Learning; Sri Lanka; TEACHER education; Teacher Education Programs; Teaching Methods; __:import:01; __:match:final; __:matched; __:study_id:2099817; __finaldtb

Reducing distance through online international collaboration - Schreiber, Brooke R.; Jansz, Mihiri (ELT Journal, 2020)
Online and hybrid courses offer many benefits for ESL teacher education, but can be hampered by 'transactional distance', a lack of interpersonal closeness which can cause misunderstanding and disengagement. This article describes a pedagogical project in which in-service teachers studying in a distance-learning MA TESL programme in Sri Lanka participated in an asynchronous discussion forum with peers from a university in New York City to discuss varieties of World Englishes. The project increased dialogue between learners, and between learners and the instructor, providing space for informal interactions through text, images, and video, as well as multiple methods for responding to feedback, ultimately reducing transactional distance. This article discusses the benefits of the project as well as the pedagogical and technological challenges, offering suggestions for other MA TESL educators about implementing such collaborations.
Keywords: Asynchronous Communication; Computer Mediated Communication; DISTANCE education; Distance Education; ENGLISH as a foreign language; ENGLISH language education; ERIC, Current Index to Journals in Education (CIJE); Educational Benefits; Educational Cooperation; English (Second Language); Feedback (Response); Foreign Countries; Group Discussion; Higher Education; IN-service training of teachers; Inservice Teacher Education; International Cooperation; LEARNING; Language Variation; Masters Programs; New York (New York); Online Courses; Peer Groups; Postsecondary Education; Program Descriptions; Second Language Instruction; Second Language Learning; Sri Lanka; TEACHER education; Teacher Education Programs; Teaching Methods; __:import:01; __:match:final; __:matched; __:study_id:2099817; __finaldtb

Motivation and social cognitive theory - Schunk, Dale H.; DiBenedetto, Maria K. (Contemporary Educational Psychology, 2020)
This article discusses motivation from the perspective of Bandura’s social cognitive theory. Motivation refers to processes that instigate and sustain goal-directed activities. Motivational processes are personal/internal influences that lead to outcomes such as choice, effort, persistence, achievement, and environmental regulation. Motivation has been a prominent feature of social cognitive theory from the early modeling research to the current conception involving agency. The conceptual framework of reciprocal interactions is discussed, after which research is summarized on behavioral, environmental, and personal influences on motivation. Key internal motivational processes are goals and self-evaluations of progress, self-efficacy, social comparisons, values, outcome expectations, attributions, and self-regulation. Critical issues confronting the theory include diversity and culture, methodology, and long-term effects of interventions. The article concludes with additional recommendations for future research on contexts, conceptual clarity, and technology.
Keywords: Motivation; Self-efficacy in education; Social cognitive theory

Centre for Mathematics, Science and Technology Education in Africa (2020)

Cyber Actors Target K-12 Distance Learning Education to Cause Disruptions and Steal Data (2020)
This Joint Cybersecurity Advisory was coauthored by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), and the Multi-State Information Sharing and Analysis Center (MS-ISAC).

equip Tanzania (2020)

Global e-Schools and Communities Initiative (GESCI) / African Digital Schools Initiative (ADSI) (2020)

Instant Network Schools (Vodafone, 2020)

Kenya Institute of Curriculum Development (2020)

Kenya Institute of Special Education (2020)

Liquid Telecom Kenya (Liquid telecom, 2020)
Liquid Telecom in Kenya is a full-service data communications carrier offering a host of services including IP, broadband transport, infrastructure services and co-location services.

Local Content for African Libraries (Worldreader, 2020)
The LOCAL project aims to bring local books to libraries and ensure that children can learn in their mother-tongue language.

Loon (Loon, 2020)
Loon is a network of stratospheric balloons designed to bring Internet connectivity to rural and remote communities worldwide.

mCourser (2020)
Try our Learning Management System for free. mCourser supports online schools, free courses, real-time evaluation, private classes and more...

Mezzanine (Vodacom Ghana, 2020)

Microsoft (2020)
Microsoft, en tant qu’acteur de la transformation numérique en France, aide les individus et les entreprises du monde entier à exploiter pleinement leur potentiel.

MIT Solve (2020)

Mobile School Report Card (mSRC, 2020)

O'Genius Priority Ltd (O'Genius Priority, 2020)

One Billion (2020)

ProFuturo (2020)

Re:Coded (Re:Coded, 2020)

Rumie Initiative (Rumie Initiative, 2020)
Here at Rumie we are doggedly passionate about addressing the UN’s sustainable development goal of Quality Education. We are always excited to work with partners who share our vision of using affordable technology to deliver innovative, digital learning solutions to communities who need it ...

ShuleDirect (2020)

Teachers Service Commission (2020)

Uwezo (2020): Are Our Children Learning? The Status of Remote-learning among School-going Children in Kenya during the Covid-19 Crisis. Nairobi: Usawa Agenda. | HumanitarianResponse (2020)

Worldreader (2020)
With low-cost technology, culturally-relevant digital books, and a network of partners, we’re helping millions of people read more and read better.