Support for scaling educational technology in Chad

30 May 2023
Image for news item
Credit: GPE/Carine Durand

The KIX-supported research project, Bridges to impact through innovative EdTech: Forging links between policy, research and practice, led by War Child Holland, tackles the challenge of scaling up education technology (EdTech) programs in conflict-affected settings, particularly in the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic. Indeed, the pandemic and school closures illustrated the importance of EdTech in providing children with access to quality and equitable education when in-person education is no longer possible. This research focuses on the innovation Can’t Wait to Learn (CWTL), a curriculum-aligned and tablet-based education program that provides children with access to quality education through self-paced games to improve learners’ reading and numeracy skills. This project seeks to determine how EdTech innovations can be adapted and scaled to improve education access and quality for refugees and displaced children in conflict-affected countries.

Last year, the General Director of Education, Inclusion and Literacy at the Ministry of Education and the Chief of information division of the National Curriculum Centre visited the camps where the CWTL programme and research are being implemented. The visit was organized by JRS Chad, War Child’s programme and research implementation partner in the country. During the visit, the MoE mission visited schools in Goz Beida and a classroom while children were playing with the tablets. They asked questions to children, facilitators, teachers and school principals about the CWTL programme implementation. The MoE mission has also visited schools and classrooms in Djabal camps during the CWTL programme implementation and held a meeting with the community. After the visit, our Chad research coordinator presented our KIX-supported research in the country. The visit was highly successful for the uptake of the research and programme based on the feedback from the JRS team. The MoE mission has promised to advocate for scaling the CWTL programme and research to the rest of the ministry and the donor community in Chad.