Emma Harden-Wolfson

Three years of hard work, three very different contexts, groundbreaking mixed methods research and nearly 10,000 participants, all summarized into a 20 page comparative analysis? Yup!

This felt like an impossible task and there is so much interesting detail that could not be included, but together with project leads Jyldyz Doolbekova and Almagul Osmonova, we’ve published a short and user-friendly summary of the key comparative findings of the IDRC/GPE KIX funded research project, ‘Promoting Innovative Approaches in Distance Education to Improve Access and Reduce Inequality in Education in Kyrgyzstan, Mongolia and Tajikistan.’

This follows the publication of three country policy briefs that I compiled:

Innovations and challenges in distance education and the prospects for post-pandemic digital transformation: Evidence from Kyrgyzstan

Becoming a digital nation: Learning from the pandemic to enhance educational access and innovation in Mongolia

Going the distance: Readiness for digitalization and distance education in Tajikistan

Here’s the introduction to the comparative report to whet your appetite; the full report is freely available to download at https://kix.taalimforum.kg/en/research/comparative-analysis:

“The COVID-19 pandemic caused huge upheavals in the world’s education systems. School closures and the rapid shift to distance learning affected nearly 1.6 billion students in more than 190 countries. This translates to 94% of the world’s student population and almost 100% in low- and lower-middle income countries. In Kyrgyzstan, Mongolia and Tajikistan, the pandemic further exposed existing problems in the school systems, principally relating to the state of material and technical equipment, level of teacher training and preparation, and unequal distribution of resources.

The three countries’ educational responses to the pandemic were very varied. In Kyrgyzstan, schools closed from 16 March 2020 for three weeks and continued in distance format until 1 April 2021 for all learners except first graders. Due to its shared border with China and concerns over the public health system, schools in Mongolia faced prolonged closures starting in January 2020. Students were taught by distance education for 20 school weeks (in rural areas) or 22 weeks (in the capital), with blended learning operating in the first part of 2021/22. In contrast, Tajikistan’s schools did not experience extended closures with the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. Instead, the 2019/20 school year was cut short by an extended summer holiday that lasted from the end of April until mid-August 2020. With health measures in place, educational institutions were subsequently re-opened for in-person learning.

Governments in all three countries formally announced priorities and policies for digitalization in education even before COVID-19 and responded to the pandemic with measures to train and build digital competencies. Although distance learning is seen as a necessary and effective way to continue the continuity of education, the experiences of these countries have been very mixed regarding its organization and quality assurance. The underdeveloped digital infrastructure, teachers’ lack of digital competencies and students’ lack of skills have reinforced existing challenges and added new inequalities in education.

In this context, the three-year project Distance Education to Improve Quality and Access in Kyrgyzstan, Mongolia, and Tajikistan was initiated in 2021. The project’s aims were to study the pandemic-era experiences of these three countries to identify innovations, challenges, and the prospects for digital transformation in distance learning. Particular attention was given to known vulnerabilities in the region relating to gender (both girls and boys), geography
(remote and rural areas), and identity (ethnic and/or linguistic minority affiliation).

Data for this project was collected in three phases. First, a review of policies and initiatives launched following the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic helped establish the context for innovation and to map examples of educational innovation. Second, extensive qualitative field research was undertaken during 2022. This incorporated participant observation, focus
groups, and semi-structured interviews, reaching 665 participants in total. Third, student and teacher surveys were developed to ascertain preparedness for distance education. The surveys were administered at schools across all three countries and were completed by a total of 6,475 students and 1,621 teachers. In total, the research encompassed 8,761 participants.

This report brings together the findings from all three phases of the research with the objective of comparing selected main results across the three countries. The methodology section outlines the wealth of data collected during the project. The report then focusses on high-level comparative findings related to the policy framework for distance education and
digitalization, digital infrastructure, educational innovations, readiness for distance education, and the impact of distance education on vulnerable students. The report is designed to be read and used alongside other final outputs from the project that include a technical report and three country policy briefs.”