Bergman)
"To address the learning crisis, which has been exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic, approaches that can cost-effectively improve learning on a global scale are needed."
The COVID-19 outbreak caused education systems around the world to halt in-person learning. In Botswana, schools across the country were closed from March to June 2020; shortly after reopening, a new wave of COVID-19 cases prompted a subsequent school closure, with similar waves of reopening and closing expected, and a double-shift system in place as of July 2020. Despite the government's efforts to keep students engaged through learning programmes on national television and radio stations, families have expressed demands for additional remote educational activities for their children. However, in Botswana as elsewhere, the pandemic has laid bare existing educational inequalities, with high-income families having access to alternative sources of instruction (e.g., computers and smartphones) that are out of reach of many low-income families. In partnership with the non-governmental organisation (NGO) Young 1ove and the Ministry of Basic Education, researchers conducted a randomised evaluation to assess the effectiveness of a low-tech intervention on improving students' learning during school closure.