How to Support Students When Schools Reopen?

The most pressing problem facing all education systems is how to provide remedial education to students once schools reopen following COVID-19 closures. Children will return with a large learning deficit, with some more behind than others. Teachers will face the challenge of providing instruction over an even more academically diverse classroom than before. There is a real risk that the children who fall behind the curriculum might learn at a slower pace for the rest of their school career. The good news is that there is a methodology that has been proven to be highly effective in many different contexts: targeted instruction, which tailors instruction to the learning level of the child. This insight note draws on evidence from multiple field experiments conducted in Ghana and India, and highlights some key principles that should be kept in mind when implementing targeted instruction, with specific reference to the Tanzanian context.