Equity & Educate!: Solutions Built to Close Gaps
Youth are disproportionately experiencing the social and economic shocks brought on by the coronavirus, as young people are more likely to be enrolled in education or training or employed in insecure, temporary, or informal employment.
Now more than ever, youth need to be gaining 21st century skills that will support their resilience and recovery to this pandemic. Yet, many youth in East Africa do not have the infrastructure or resources to transition their studies to online learning: just 12% of households have internet access at home. That’s why we set out to develop an innovative new distance learning model specifically designed for youth in East Africa. This model leverages low-tech and low-cost delivery mechanisms, such as radio and mobile phone platforms, to bridge the learning and skills gap in education systems which has been widened by the coronavirus.
Targeting Gender Equity During a Pandemic
Past crises show that girls face heightened challenges during pandemics and severe economic downturns, as well as a host of new barriers to quality education and employment, including increased sexual exploitation, early marriage, and adolescent pregnancy. This prompted us to ask ourselves: How can we target Educate!’s significant impact on gender equity outcomes during a pandemic?
As a first step, we are separating the data we collect on our distance learning solutions by gender and tracking differences in participation and achievement between boys and girls. This allows us to identify areas where girls might be disadvantaged and design solutions to address them. For example, we learned that boys are more likely to own their own phones than girls — making it more challenging for female learners to participate. We also learned that many girls have been expected to take on new responsibilities at home, giving them less time in their day to prioritize learning while schools are closed. In response to these learnings, we’ve put the following strategies in place:
Facilitating all-girl conference calls in an effort to create safe spaces for girls to discuss gender-related issues that have come up during the pandemic
Adding a second set of remote lessons to radio and SMS later in the day for learners with limited time, conflicting responsibilities, or those who may have to share devices
Connecting youth directly to Educate! Mentors over the phone for 1:1 support and to make up missed lessons
Expanding Impact to Out-of-School Youth
When schools closed, suddenly all youth were disconnected from their teachers and classmates and the world was reminded of the consequences of school closures on young people’s lives. However, many youth were already out of school before COVID-19: in the region, about 50% of youth are not enrolled in secondary school.
Access to education is an equity issue, and Educate! has been working since 2019 to extend our reach outside national education systems by developing new solutions for out-of-school youth. Focused on sector-specific skills coupled with leadership and entrepreneurship training, this new bootcamp-style model aims to create a market of alternative pathways to employment for youth who cannot afford to attend secondary school. With the outbreak of coronavirus, we’ve pivoted to deliver this model to youth virtually, and the curriculum has been updated with content on coronavirus safety.
Our commitment to designing solutions with equity front of mind is as critical now as it has ever been, and we can always strive to do more and do better. Even youth with ample support and access to resources are experiencing a loss of learning due to this crisis, and those without it will face even greater challenges in their recovery. As we continue to iterate, experiment, and build on Educate!’s equity-focused approaches, it is our hope that our solutions will provide youth, both in and out of school, with the skills they need to overcome the inequities they face during and after the pandemic.
