Research Unit: Human Development

Implementing A LOT-Change Intervention through Radio in Korogocho and Viwandani

ALOT Change Phase III is a follow-up study of the Phase II cohort who transitioned to secondary school in 2019. In this Phase, APHRC in liaison with Miss Koch and U-Tena is testing the feasibility of
implementing the A LOT-Change model among older adolescents and also establish the sustainability of the effects of the intervention as observed in Phase II on the adolescents in secondary school.

The intervention components in Phase III include career awareness training, mentoring in soft skills, holiday homework support, digital literacy and parental counselling. In the short-term, these components are expected to broaden the enrolled adolescents’ view of prospective future career paths in different sectors and knowledge of what it takes to get there; improve their social responsibility and citizenship skills; improve soft skills knowledge among adolescent boys and girls; improve learning outcomes; enhance their knowledge and skills in the use of digital hardware and related software; and increase parental support for their children’s education. In the long term we hope that by securing the future of these adolescent boys and girls, they will, in turn, transform their communities positively. […]

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The Status of Learning at Home, Challenges and Coping Strategies During the COVID-19 Pandemic: Experiences from Two Urban Informal Settlements

At the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, about 1.6 billion learners (94% globally) from pre-primary to higher education were affected by the partial or total closure of schools (UN, 2020). As shown in Table 1, projections from UNESCO 2020 show that 23.8 million (10.9 million in primary and secondary school) children, adolescents and youth are at risk of dropping out of school globally due to the COVID-19 pandemic. […]

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Financing Education in Africa during the COVID-19 Pandemic

This report synthesizes available evidence on the education priorities of 41 African partner countries of the Global Partnership for Education (GPE) in responding to the impacts of COVID-19, and how these countries have financed their responses. It also addresses how these measures are meeting the education needs of vulnerable and marginalized children, especially girls, children with disabilities and those living in hard-to-reach areas. It identifies education financing gaps and challenges, and emerging evidence on what education systems in these countries are experiencing as a result of COVID-19 and persistent funding constraints. The report concludes with five recommendations for GPE partner countries and development actors. […]

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The Regional Education Learning Initiative The interplay of top-down and bottom-up strategies to improving learning outcomes

Top-down, bottom-up, and incremental approaches are usually applied to the implementation of policies (Darling-Hammond, 2000). Even though these approaches have been solely applied to the policy process, they can also explain implementation mechanisms within education programs that have expansive in nature and seeks to influence policy outcomes in a particular educational skill area—learning outcomes. […]

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