Providing Continuing Professional Development (CPD) using EdTech and remote learning during school closures for educators participating in the Kano Literacy and Maths Accelerator Project, Nigeria

Before the outbreak of COVID-19 in March 2020, Kano State, Nigeria, was taking measures to address the challenge of equipping children with basic literacy and numeracy skills. As part of their efforts to address this challenge, the Kano State Universal Basic Education Board (SUBEB) and the Federal Ministry of Education (FMoE), together with the British Council and Teaching at the Right Level (TaRL) Africa, and with support from the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO), launched the Kano Literacy and Mathematics Accelerator (KaLMA) in October 2019. The project aims to build foundational Maths, Hausa, and English literacy skills for 37,000 primary 4 to primary 6 pupils in two full local government areas, Dawakin Tofa and Wudil, in Kano State. By the end of March 2020, learning in over 107 countries across the world, including Nigeria, had come to a sudden halt as governments implemented national school closures to stem COVID-19 transmission. A consequence of this was that the KaLMA project had to stop its in-school activities and pivot to supporting pupils and teachers through remote delivery. Kano SUBEB were committed to supporting the Continuing Professional Development (CPD) of teachers despite school closures and COVID-19 social distancing restrictions. An action-oriented study suggests that a programme of CPD delivered via WhatsApp, Interactive Voice Response (IVR) and text messages (SMS) can increase teacher knowledge and engagement, but more research is required to understand how educators - comprising teachers, student teachers, head teachers and school support officers (SSOs) - are engaging, how this engagement varies for different subjects, sub-groups and genders, and what can be done to overcome the barriers to participation, especially with regards to technology.