COVID-19 Response

Following the COVID-19 outbreak in early 2020, all regular activities and schooling came to a halt. The educationists worldwide explored alternative learning modalities. Room to Read Bangladesh explored and adopted new avenues to help children and teachers continue learning and capacity building respectively first through remote support to facilitate distance learning and, when schools opened later in 2021, a blended mode of teaching-learning.

The government’s ability to reach children with remote quality education opportunities varies enormously based on the country’s income level (Brookings Institution). And within a country with a persistent urban-rural gap in mobile internet access, “the gender gap in Internet use is highest… since Bangladeshi women are 34% less likely to have their own mobile phones.”

However, the Government of Bangladesh was quick to pull together organizations that could contribute digital teaching-learning resources to then host these contents online under the supervision of its digital wing a2i (Aspire to Innovate). Room to Read Bangladesh instantly responded to the call by providing existing digital content to this pool and started digitizing existing print resources as well as producing new learning materials to meet the growing content need.

Although 99% of people have access to mobile phones, the habit of seeking learning materials from online sources is a new ask for Bangladesh. And with only 41% internet penetration where only around 25% are girls, delivery of digital resources was bound to reach a low number of target audience and also create a learning ‘gap’ created due to prolonged C19 school closure. Room to Read Bangladesh stepped up to ensure children’s continued access to reading-writing materials, and that girls were not losing hope of education in the low-income communities.

We resorted to low-tech print solutions transforming children’s storybooks to aid reading comprehension practices, developed worksheets incorporating Social and Emotional Learning contents and delivered these items door to door alongside a regular supply of stationery items. Remote support in the form of reading and writing tips via SMS, conference calls with SMC and training of teachers and Government officials via Zoom were carried out. 40 celebrity read-alouds were telecast nationally and locally; 13 teacher-training videos were developed. To help minimize the learning gap in children, the organization developed a ‘remedial package’ that was adopted by Government entities. To strengthen content delivery, an Interactive Voice Response System was introduced to the low-income communities with toll-free access to audio content.

Side by side, collaboration with the DSHE continued. Life-skill education topics were developed into 20 classroom-lectures that claimed space in Government-run distance learning program on national TV. Throughout the school closure, the adolescent girls continued to watch the distance learning programs and engaged themselves in various creative endeavors. Mentoring support that is usually done in person was carried out with individuals on video and conference calls.

We have partnered with Bangladesh Betar (national radio) to broadcast GEP program Amar Mentor (trans: My Mentor). The weekend radio sessions will be modeled as a conversation between a GEP girl and mentor on primetime slots every Saturday up until May/June for a total of 20 sessions.

Conceptualized in line with the global mentoring manual, the sessions will extend emotional and solidarity support to girls experiencing difficult times, encourage them to not lose hope and continue education, and refer them to official sources of information/support in case of safety-security concerns. GEP team has also embedded knowledge gathering aspects. Overall, a standard mentoring experience on radio!

For the capacity development of the educators and the staff, RtR has developed an online training package focusing ‘library management and activity’ and already hosted it on a2i – the digital platform under the Prime Minister’s office. Teachers are enrolling for this self-paced course and receiving certificates upon successful completion. Besides, another online training package on ‘instruction’ is underway. Teachers, staff and anyone interested across the country will have access to this training via a2i (Muktopaath). RtR will continue to communicate with teachers and government officials for updates on the project. If situation permits, RtR will conduct training for teachers via online platform like last year (Zoom training).

The project funded by WFP also started to adopt alternative ways to reach learners despite closures and general restrictions on movement. The intervention was to ensure more students’ reading-writing activity during school closure. RtR developed 54,816 worksheet booklets for students of Grades 1 and 2 to minimize the learning gap and distributed low-tech print resources at students’ doorstep.

The worksheet was designed to ensure reading and writing by students themselves with minimal or no support from adults. A total of 765,600 story cards on 60 WFP storybooks were developed, printed, and distributed at the students’ household level. For the continuation of the writing activity, RtR provided exercise khata and kits (pen, pencil eraser, crayons, sharpener, geometry boxes). RtR was also in close contact with students through IVRS content sharing, telecasting read-aloud videos in national and local TV and YouTube channel, sending out messages with links to digital learning resources.

We also developed 13 videos for teachers’ capacity building on Instruction, library, and SEL and then shared them with teachers for their capacity development. RtR also developed 40 read-aloud videos with support from Bangladeshi celebrities and telecasted them on national and local tv channels.