Case Study Details - The EDISON Alliance - Selected online learning experiences in the Caribbean during COVID-19

The COVID-19 pandemic has caused widespread closure of schools and disruption of education systems worldwide, requiring unprecedented adaptation to ensure learning continuity for students. In place of classroom learning, Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) have been adopted to support online distance learning – with mixed results. This paper explores how the pandemic has affected the educational system in the Carribean. While Caribbean governments have piloted a range of online learning modalities, many children in the subregion, especially those from poor and rural households, were not able to leverage those facilities. As a result of a lack of access to the Internet and devices that enable online learning, they lost nearly a year of education. These inequities have laid bare pre-existing barriers to accessing education at all levels in the subregion.

Impact / Outcome

Across the profiled countries, COVID-19 has been an accelerant for increased use of online learning technologies and ICT capacity building among educators, students, and parents. Specific distance learning modalities implementation varied based on education level, with primary school education generally being delivered through traditional technologies, such as television and radio, while online learning technologies or LMS have been used at the secondary and tertiary levels. Blended learning will characterize post-pandemic education in the Caribbean, with a combination of online and traditional classroom learning for maximum inclusivity. Unfortunately, delivering access to online learning for marginalized students remains a challenge.

Funding sources

Public

Key Metrics

Deliver equitable, quality learning opportunities beyond crisis and challenges