Disrupted education trajectories: Exploring the effects of Covid‐19 on adolescent learning and priorities for “building back better” education systems in Ethiopia

Abstract

Summary Motivation The Covid‐19 pandemic delivered an unprecedented shock to education systems globally, with school closures affecting 1.6 billion children. Education systems in LMICs are facing significant budget cuts further constraining capacities to adapt to Covid‐19 impacts. The need for evidence to inform policy dialogues about how best to mitigate impacts and support education systems to “build back better” is pressing. Purpose In Ethiopia, schools reopened in October 2020 after a 7‐month pandemic‐related closure. Employing an adapted resilience systems analysis framework, this article focuses on the extent to which Ethiopia’s education system—which has in recent decades seen rapid progress in enrolment rates—has adapted to the impacts of the pandemic on adolescents’ education and learning, and has achieved this equitably. Methods and approach The article draws on mixed‐methods data from Ethiopia collected virtually with a pre‐existing cohort of 3,066 adolescents (1,683 girls & 1,383 boys) during the immediate onset of the pandemic (April–June 2020) and following the reopening of schools (November 2020–February 2021). Adolescent perspectives are complemented by 27 key informant interviews at community and district levels. Findings Findings highlight that rural adolescents, girls and adolescents with disabilities were less likely to access distance education during school closures due to connectivity challenges and discriminatory norms, and to subsequently re‐enrol. Implementation of adaptive measures, including hygiene guidance, smaller class sizes and catch‐up classes, has been highly uneven, and outreach to support re‐enrolment of socially marginalized adolescents very limited. Policy implications For LMICs like Ethiopia to build back better post‐pandemic and stay on track to achieve Sustainable Development Goal 4’s commitment to inclusive and equitable quality education for all, scaled‐up investments in blended learning approaches, addressing the digital divide, and ensuring targeted outreach and social protection to support re‐enrolment of socially marginalized adolescents is critical.

Building resilience now and for the future: Adolescent skills to address global challenges

“…Intersecting vulnerabilities compound challenges for girls and boys-and a young person's age shapes both the risks they face and the protecting factors that they use to navigate the world around them (Baird et al, 2021a).…”

“…Disrupted education trajectories: Exploring the effects of Covid-19 on adolescent learning and priorities for "building back better" education systems in Ethiopia (Jones et al, 2021a).…”

“…We then provide a brief summary of each of the articles which dive deeper into theoretical, empirical, and programmatic evidence addressing these issues. While several of the articles explicitly refer to "resilience," for example, in terms of youth skill building (Kwauk & Casey, 2022) or education systems' adaptive capacity (Jones et al, 2021a), others explore more broadly the opportunities and barriers encountered when individuals or communities attempt to overcome diverse global challenges.…”

COVID-19 and the gendered impacts on adolescent wellbeing: Evidence from a cross-sectional study of locally adapted measures in Ethiopia, Jordan, and Palestine

“…As a component of the longitudinal Gender and Adolescence: Global Evidence (GAGE) study, 17 this analysis builds on ongoing research assessing risk and protective factors for adolescent wellbeing during the pandemic. 18 , 19 , 20 , 21 Using data from 5,752 adolescents, we first developed locally adapted measures of adolescent wellbeing, following best practices for the development of valid and reliable measures. 22 , 23 We used multivariate regression methods to understand the relationship between household-level COVID-19 vulnerability and our adolescent wellbeing measures, using an adapted measure of COVID-19 vulnerability across four domains: socioeconomic, demographic, epidemiological, and housing and hygiene.…”

Disrupted educational pathways: The effects of conflict on adolescent educational access and learning in war-torn Ethiopia

“…In short, in the 5 • years preceding the outbreak of conflict in northern Ethiopia in November 2020, the education sector was already facing a daunting task to deliver on all children's right to education. That task has been rendered even more challenging by the prolonged closure of schools between March and November 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic (Jones et al, 2021).…”