How digital collaborations can help close the learning poverty gap

Two of these teachers, David and Loreen, are now equipped to teach modules on Diversity and Inclusion and Emerging Technologies. Talking about the latter, David said, “EY left us with great knowledge about the emerging technologies of our time. Helping our students gain insight into these emerging technologies is essential in an ever-changing world.” As a computer and technology teacher, Loreen found this session very relevant: “The session demonstrated tools available for free with engaging animations tackling recent and complicated topics about technology that are simplified, easy to use and appealing to the students.” Loreen was also impressed with the materials on Diversity and Inclusion, “The session introduced us to easily accessible and detailed materials that can make our experience as teachers with such topics easier and more entertaining for students.” David agreed, explaining, “I think no better words can describe our society in Lebanon. One common mistake we make is ignoring diversity. EY highlighted the importance of diversity and inclusion and how to be aware of it in our classrooms to create a safe and collaborative learning environment.”

Scaling digital learning training programs for teachers

To help teachers get quickly oriented with the new skills required in an online classroom, Teach For All network partner, Enseña Perú, co-created an online training module alongside current teachers using insights and real-world examples from digital classrooms across the country. The training was delivered to thousands of teachers across Peru, serving as a blueprint for how to train teachers at scale.

Teachers were highly satisfied with the virtual training module. In addition to attending the sessions, they received personalized feedback, simulations, access to professional learning communities, lectures and further reading. Graduates of the program are now weaving videos, audio clips and pictures of students’ work into their regular teaching practices.

Since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Philippines' education system has been upskilling teachers to adapt to hybrid teaching and learn to be effective in a digital classroom. To support this, Teach for the Philippines supported free training for public school teachers in digital literacy, blended learning and 21^st century education models. Building on this, Teach for the Philippines is now implementing a series of training sessions for teachers and parents on digital literacy and responsible digital citizenship. 

Co-creating digital instruction materials with teachers

In response to school closures during the pandemic, the 321 Foundation, founded by Teach For India alumnus, Gaurav Singh, worked with 1,000 schools, 15,000 teachers and 300,000 students to deliver CAPE, a free online lesson bank optimized for use on basic devices and where there is limited data connectivity. CAPE includes tried and tested videos, pictures, worksheets, and activities packaged as one-page lessons that can easily be shared via SMS text messages and are aligned to central and state board standards.

Reflecting on the new resources now available to his faculty, Mohammed Azharuddin, a school leader in Hyderabad said, “CAPE has provided us with free, high-quality content, which is also engaging, well-structured, intuitive and easy to follow for both teachers and students. It has also solved the problem of providing depth to asynchronous teaching.”

Since its launch, CAPE has helped 321 expand from a presence in 70 schools in three cities to over 600 schools in eight major cities and numerous smaller towns.​ Beyond the pandemic, the plan is to continue using CAPE as a supplement to in-school instruction.

In Pakistan, where many students lack internet access at home, Teach For Pakistan teachers developed a full model of instruction to be conducted over text messages on mobile phones. In “Text School”, teachers created SMS content and sent learning packets home. Students took pictures of their work and sent it for feedback. Soon pupils were sending their questions over voice notes and class discussions started to flow. With the ability to ask follow-up questions over the app, students got individual attention they hadn’t received in a busy class of 50 students. Eventually, they started using the groups to talk to each other during non-class hours, sustaining social connection during lockdown.

The strategy has increased both parental involvement in their children’s studies and student agency. When schools reopened, teachers took Text School back into their classrooms, so the children could continue to learn from videos, submit homework and keep their parents involved. Rabiah, a Text School teacher, challenges the notion that low-income schools can’t weave technology into their classrooms: “My students have every right to learn as much from technology as their privileged counterparts.”

Using platforms to share knowledge with teachers and students

The Indian school education system is one of the largest in the world, with more than 260 million students and 9.6 million teachers. While previous interventions to close learning gaps have succeeded in siloes, they have not been achieved at scale. To address this issue, in 2017, India launched the platform, Digital Infrastructure for Knowledge Sharing (DIKSHA), which can be accessed by learners and teachers across the country, including via a low bandwidth option that supports mobile access and also offline access.

The platform provides access to digital content through QR codes printed in over 600 million textbooks distributed across the country. It also delivers in-class resources, teacher training content and assessment aids. Importantly, DIKSHA policies and tools make it possible for the education ecosystem to participate, contribute and leverage a common platform to achieve learning goals at scale for the country.

Since its adoption, DIKSHA has driven the digital transformation of India’s school education ecosystem. The platform, in which digital content is available in 36 languages, has delivered over 300,000 digital learning content and more than 8,700 Digital Capacity Building courses which augment learning for more than seven million teachers and 180 million students.

EY is working in close collaboration with the National Council for Educational Research and Training (NCERT), the Indian Ministry of Education (MoE) and other key stakeholders to support the DIKSHA platform from inception, working with education departments to design large-scale programs and support procurement, on-boarding and vendor management. Collaborating with other education-based government agencies, EY also helped to develop the framework for periodic competency-based assessment and created a dashboard within DIKSHA to make it easy for administrators to monitor its impact and support performance improvement.

The growing economy of India has become increasingly digital in nature and has led to the developmental efforts of digital public infrastructure across sectors. The efforts of India in developing Digital Public Goods (DPGs) has been admired globally and has also resulted in an opportunity for India to offer DPGs to interested countries. DIKSHA has been identified and declared as a Digital Global Good by the Government of India and is being offered to all the interested nations.

These examples illustrate the art of the possible in using digital platforms and public and private partnerships to close the learning poverty gap. The opportunity is here to scale up these platforms, connect with and upskill more teachers in low-income countries, help more students to attain greater education levels and build a bigger talent pool for the future. When global organizations, non-profits, teachers, and governments collaborate like this, we can accelerate future skills learning at scale.