New Report Proposes Innovative Tools to Monitor Learning Progress
By Omolabake Fasogbon
A new report has faulted the country’s method of education assessment which it claimed not to have captured COVID-19 learning losses.
The report released by T4 Education in collaboration with EdTech Hub, frowned at the pressure placed on teachers in connection with learning gap.
It suggested for an adoption of effective EdTech tools and techniques to monitor learning progress in an online environment.
According to the report, which was a discovery of a study conducted in Nigeria and other low- and middle-income countries (LMICs), tech limitations, particularly high cost of data, and education assessment methods did not accurately gauge student progress as well as learning losses created by COVID-19.
The study was conducted in six countries, including Nigeria, Bangladesh, India, Pakistan, Philippines, and South Africa, employing focus group discussions with teachers and school leaders in each country.
Themed, ‘Effective Assessment and Progress Monitoring in an Online Environment’, the report further provided insight into how tools and techniques for monitoring progress can be improved on, stressing its importance to addressing learning gaps widened during the pandemic.
Speaking on the report, Executive Director of EdTech Hub, Verna Lalbeharie stated that the study was undertaken to understand how teachers and school leaders in Nigeria and other LMICs approached progress assessment when students were learning remotely during the pandemic.
“The report highlights how consistent access to electricity proved a big challenge for teaching students and tracking their progress during the pandemic, as was a lack of access to devices.
The cost of data was also widely cited by study participants as an issue students and teachers had to contend with. Cheaper data rates at night meant students often had to work later in the evenings”.
Lalbeharie added, “The extreme challenge placed on teachers in Nigeria and around the world to provide continuity of learning for students in a long-term emergency environment is something from which we must learn.
“There is no piece of technology that can replace the art of good teaching. This was true before the pandemic and has been deeply underscored in the last two years. What we can do, however, is enhance the art by providing teachers with evidence-based, effective tools and assessment systems which are essential to tackling learning losses in LMICs exacerbated by the pandemic. And drawing on the lessons learned in this report, we can prepare for and properly monitor student progress the next time a crisis forces schools to close.”
