Education Endures: Room to Read’s Award-winning Literacy and Gender Equality Interventions During the COVID-19 Pandemic

  • P Project/Program

? Activity Status: Unknown

Key Information

Since the spread of COVID-19, all 16 of the countries where we work have experienced full or partial school closures. We have worked diligently to find new ways to deliver our programs. Our staff members live and work in the countries where Room to Read operates. They are local nationals with a deep understanding of complex community needs and cultures, and strong government relationships that allow us to partner for maximum impact. This enables us to facilitate learning using the most powerful tools and media available locally.

Our educational interventions do not depend on internet connectivity alone as it is largely unavailable in the areas we serve. We offer a range of interventions, from lowtech to high-tech. These include providing instruction and materials via books, worksheets, radio, TV, text messages, telephone calls and our digital learning platform, Literacy Cloud.

Lead Implementing Organization(s)

Location(s)

East Asia & Pacific, Middle East & North Africa, South Asia, Sub-Saharan Africa

Bangladesh, Cambodia, India, Indonesia, Jordan, Lao People's Democratic Republic, Myanmar, Nepal, Rwanda, South Africa, Sri Lanka, United Republic of Tanzania, Viet Nam, Zambia

Activity URL

https://www.roomtoread.org/media/tdwk0cyr/covid-two-pager.pdf

Government Affiliation

Non-governmental program

Years

2020 -

Partner(s)

Not applicable or unknown

Ministry Affiliation

Unknown

Funder(s)

Not applicable or unknown

COVID-19 Response

Adapted

Geographic Scope

Global / regional

Meets gender-transformative education criteria from the TES  

Unknown

Areas of Work Back to Top

Education areas

Other

  • Remote Learning

Other skills

  • Rights/empowerment education
  • Social and emotional learning

Quality

  • Teacher training

Skills

  • Literacy
  • Numeracy
  • Other academic performance-related
  • STEM

Cross-cutting areas

  • Community sensitization
  • COVID-19 Response
  • Digital literacy
  • Empowerment
  • Gender equality
  • Mentorship

Program participants

Target Audience(s)

Boys (both in school and out of school), Fathers, Girls (both in school and out of school), Mothers, Parent-teacher associations/school management committees, Teachers - female, Teachers - male, Youth

Age

5 - 18

School Enrolment Status

Some in school

School Level

  • Lower primary
  • Upper primary
  • Lower secondary
  • Upper secondary

Other populations reached

Not applicable or unknown

Participants include

Not applicable or unknown

Program Approaches Back to Top

Access to school

  • Alternative learning centers/mobile schools/home schools

Curriculum/learning

  • Gender-sensitive curricula
  • Increased availability of learning materials

Educational Technology

  • Computer-assisted learning
  • Digital devices for the purposes of studying, learning
  • Digital learning materials/programs
  • Digital reading materials (non-textbook)
  • Digital skills/literacy (including coding)
  • Online training

Increased availability of learning materials

  • Educational Radio or Television Programs
  • Increased availability of Fiction/non-fiction books (digital)
  • Increased availability of Fiction/non-fiction books (paper)
  • Increased availability of Fiction/non-fiction books (unspecified)
  • Increased availability of Math materials (rulers, protractors, calculators, etc.)
  • Increased availability of Writing materials
  • Textbooks (digital)
  • Textbooks (paper)
  • Textbooks (unspecified)

Mentoring/psychosocial support

  • Adult (non-teacher) mentors
  • School-based counselors

Other

  • Informational interventions (e.g. returns to education)

Reducing economic barriers

  • Addressing cost of school supplies

School-related gender-based violence

  • Support in and around schools (e.g. peer counseling, adult-to-student counseling)
  • Training of school personnel (including teachers)

Social/gender norms change

  • Engaging parents/caregivers of students or school-age children/adolescents

Teaching

  • Teaching materials (e.g. lesson plans, curricula)

Tutoring/strengthening academic skills

  • Literacy - in the classroom
  • Literacy - outside the classroom
  • Numeracy - in the classroom
  • Numeracy - outside the classroom
  • STEM - in the classroom
  • STEM - outside the classroom

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Program Goals Back to Top

Education goals

  • Improved academic skills (literacy and numeracy)
  • Increased literacy
  • Increased numeracy
  • Reduced absenteeism
  • Reduced grade repetition

Cross-cutting goals

  • Increased agency and empowerment
  • More equitable gender attitudes and norms