‘Community engagement a must for recovering learning losses’

Educationists called for community-level programmes to save the educational life of children and to recover the pandemic-driven learning losses as the reopening of schools still remains uncertain.

Children need motivation after being out of school and off from classes for a long time. There should be community-level activities including learning programmes so that they do not drop out, said educationists on a Thursday webinar, "Evidence to Action: Covid-19 and the Deepening Learning Crisis - How Can We Build Forward Better?"

At the event organised by the Brac Institute of Governance and Development (BIGD), Dr Hossain Zillur Rahman, executive chairman of the Power and Participation Research Centre, said, "We must switch to children's educational life from school life as we do not know how long the Covid-19 pandemic will prevail. So, we need a Covid-19 response catch up agenda."

He said community actors must be funded by the government. At the same time, teachers and guardians will have to play active roles.

Zillur said many students had been facing learning inequalities during the pandemic, including in terms of access to distance education. He recommended providing needy primary to higher secondary level students with cash aid to minimise the gaps.

Rasheda K Choudhury, executive director of Campaign for Popular Education (CAMPE), said the government should launch a nationwide campaign to make stakeholders aware of the need for recovering the learning losses. She also insisted on making an estimate of the total economic loss due to the prolonged school closure.

Referring to a government ban on NGO-run community-level education programmes during the pandemic, Rasheda K Choudhury said, "This is unfortunate. Even democratic space and civil society engagements have been shrinking in the country."

Anir Chowdhury, policy advisor of the a2i Programme, told the webinar that blended learning should be permanent even after the pandemic. He pointed out that teacher adaptability and inclusive infrastructure are challenges to implementing the new module.

Rachel Glennerster, chief economist of the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office of the UK, suggested targeted help for students who are falling behind.

She also recommended grouping children during school, make-up classes, after school, or during holidays, based on their learning level.

Imran Matin, executive director of BIGD, presented a paper at the programme.

"According to World Bank data, 58% of Bangladeshi children did not achieve a minimum reading proficiency by grade V, even before the pandemic. This figure may increase to 70% due to prolonged school closures. The learning crisis is deepening day by day," he said.

He said a large number of students were already out of studying, and it would be tough to bring them back to school.

According to a BIGD study last year, 19% of primary and 25% of secondary students are at risk of learning losses.

The BIGD study said 51% primary and 61% secondary students used to attend coaching or private classes. But the coaching costs increased 33% in the pandemic, while per capita income in urban slums is still 14% below the pre-Covid levels.

Imran Matin said just 10% of the students reported utilising the opportunities of distance learning. Pupils are more interested in interactive modes (online classes) than non-interactive modes (TV), but only a small number of students have access to the Internet.

Disruption to academic life can have long-term adverse effects not only on children's future economic wellbeing but also on social equality and the national economy, he said.

The country should not wait for schools to reopen. A fresh national education campaign must begin soon, Imran said.

Dr Rukmini Banerji, chief executive officer of Pratham Education Foundation, Susannah Hares, senior policy fellow and co-director of Center for Global Development, and Asif Saleh, executive director of Brac Bangladesh, also spoke at the programme.