Nigeria - Edo-BEST at the rate Home

Nigeria has the largest population in Africa and even before COVID-19 faced the challenge of having over 13 million children out-of-school, which is approximately 20 percent of the total out-of-school child population in the world. Moreover, there is a constant threat to schooling, emanating from insurgent activities and attacks on schools that have especially targeted women and girls. On top of these challenges, the COVID-19 pandemic meant that about 38 million students (from pre-primary to secondary) were unable to continue going to school. In order to prevent further spread of COVID-19, Nigeria’s Federal Ministry of Education (MoE) closed all schools in mid-March 2020. This decision was accompanied by an education response plan to COVID-19 that was developed by a Task Team set up by the Ministry of Education and the Universal Basic Education Commission (UBEC). At the same time, states such as Lagos released radio and TV learning programs to mitigate learning loss as a result of school building closures, and so did other states. The remote learning program enables students to learn from resources that can be downloaded for free from an online repository while at home. The EdoBEST at the rate Home unimodal mobile-based remote learning program includes interactive audio lessons, digital self-study activity packets, digital storybooks, mobile interactive quizzes, learning guides for parents, and virtual classrooms that enable interaction between teachers and students. To foster effective use of the educational resources provided and to ensure learning, Edo-BEST at the rate Home focused on four key aspects: first, providing engaging programming focused on content aligned to the curriculum; second, constant support from teachers and parents to students; third, formative assessment in the form of interactive quizzes; and fourth, on-going support to teachers through virtual coaching.