When COVID-19 swept the globe, forcing millions of schools to close, an Australian researcher and an international not-for-profit found a creative yet low-tech solution to help children in developing nations keep learning.
Now, they say, the program could be rolled out in Australia to help disadvantaged children in remote areas.
When COVID-19 shut down schools in Botswana, the not-for-profit group Youth Impact provided families with non-smart mobile phones so they could access a combination of text messages and weekly, one-on-one, 20-minute phone calls with tutors.
It was an adaption of their ConnectED literacy and numeracy program and ran for an initial eight-week trial.
Former Sydney resident and Youth Impact research project coordinator Claire Cullen said 4,500 families accessed the initial trial, resulting in a 31 per cent lift in numeracy.
"Essentially, this equates to about one year of learning increase for about [$100] spent."
"There's a lot of buzz around high-tech solutions to education," Dr Cullen said.
However, there is limited internet access and expensive data costs of online learning programs in Botswana, meaning these weren't an option when the schools closed.
Dr Cullen said the program had potential to work in developed countries as well.
"It could work well in high-income countries [such as] Australia, maybe during disruptions like natural disasters or, maybe, strikes," she said.
"I think this kind of phone-based program could work well for people living in remote Australia, for disadvantaged students in particular. But also where internet coverage is lower."
Rise of low-tech learning
In June, the Botswana trial was published in the scientific journal Nature, and it caught the attention of educational psychologist Professor Andrew Martin from the University of NSW.
He agreed that the ConnectED program could be a beneficial learning tool to complement other remote-learning activities in Australia.
"There's no substitute for quality, in-person, real-time learning, so I think that continues to be the gold standard," Professor Martin said.
"But, at times when that can't happen, I do think we need to look to continually improve our technological responses, and this is one."
For Professor Martin, the effective use of low-tech mobile phones to assist teaching children in Botswana demonstrated that online learning wasn't a silver bullet when it comes to maintaining learning during disruptions.
"There's two worlds that online learning occupies: one that has significant educational benefits and one that can get in the way of learning," Professor Martin said.
"I think [ConnectED] has the capacity to plug gaps, especially when students are offline for relatively brief periods, if for example they're unwell, their internet drops out or if they're cut off due to extreme weather.
"It can be hard to set up a quality, online program quickly, so I think the mobile phone is one way to do these things quickly."
Mobile phone program goes worldwide
The success of the Botswana trial has sparked further studies involving more than 20,000 school students across five countries: Uganda, Kenya, Philippines, Nepal and India.
Sai Pramo — a co-founder of education NGO Alokit — partnered with Youth Impact to roll out ConnectEd at 14 schools in southern India last year.
The teachers then continued the program when students returned to the classroom.
Mr Pramod said the program helped teachers to support students who had trouble catching up after at-home learning.
"[The teachers] continued implementing the method post school reopening also, benefiting more children who could not be tutored earlier," Mr Pramod said.
Like practising fire drills and emergency responses, Professor Martin said, schools need to develop remote learning plans that can be implemented at quickly.
"I think schools and school systems need to develop immediate and effective plans for how to keep that child educated when they're offline for a while."
