Final Report
In June 2021, Philippine Business for Education, in partnership with Accenture Philippines, launched Kiddie Learning Train (KLT), a project to help ensure learning continuity and augment early grade Literacy and Numeracy competencies during the pandemic. KLT was designed based on existing evidence that using education technology coupled with para-teachers with Bachelor of Science in Education background, and grouping students based on learning levels can improve learning outcomes. In addition, KLT was also intended to serve as a model for a volunteer-run remedial program by encouraging Education students and graduates to participate.
The project was implemented for underperforming primary grade students in Metro Cebu, Philippines, from June 2021 to February 2022. They started as Kinder to Grade 3 students, and finished the program as Grade 1 to 4 students, as the project implementation straddled two school years.
The main intervention was the use of a tablet installed with the Kitkit School learning app. Kitkit School is a comprehensive learning platform that includes three main features: (1) the game-based Kitkit School App; (2) a library of resources for literacy and numeracy; and (3) interactive tools to supplement learning through music and arts. The application itself can work without internet connectivity.
After six months of intervention, KLT assisted 1,000 pupils with a volunteer base of 137. Volunteers provided additional tutorial sessions to pupils, monitored their progress, and provided any assistance with the app, in case the pupils needed it. Comparing the results of their pre-tests and final tests taken after an eight-week period, KLT got the following results:
For both Literacy and Numeracy, 66% experienced learning gains and 33% experienced learning gains of at least 20%;
Pupils achieved an overall 9% average increase in Literacy, and a 7% average increase in Numeracy.
At all age levels, the pupils showed statistically significant learning gains on average, with Grades 1 and 2 having the highest increase. For literacy, pupils in grades 1 through 4 showed 12%, 11% 10%, and 6% learning gains, respectively. For numeracy, children in grades 1 through 4 showed 6%, 5%, 7% and 6%, respectively.
The bottom 25% of Grade 1 students obtained the highest gains at 122% for Literacy, which is 13 times greater than the overall Literacy learning gain. For Numeracy, the learning gains of the bottom 25% of each grade level were more or less similar, at 17% (Grades 2 and 4), and 19% (Grades 1 and 3), which are at least two times higher than the overall Numeracy learning gain.
Pupils who attended at least one tutorial session obtained 25% higher Literacy learning gains, and 14% higher Numeracy gains than those who did not attend such sessions.
Pupils whose monthly family income is lower than PhP8,000 also have lower Numeracy learning gains compared to pupils whose family income is higher than Php8,000 (Php 12,000 - 35,000).
Pupils who have normal weight have the same overall average learning gains (Literacy: 9%; Numeracy: 7%) while the underweight and severely wasted have lower to negative learning gains.
The app itself received positive reviews from pupils, parents/guardians, and volunteers. All said that the learning experience was enhanced through the use of the app because of its user-friendliness, as well as the quality of the app itself. There was also a positive, but weak, correlation between the length of app usage and learning gains (0.25 for Literacy and 0.17 for Numeracy).
This report describes the implementation of KLT and its results. Following the Introduction (I) is the Project Background (II) which details information about KLT, its objectives, and the main organizations involved. Project Implementation (III) is a timeline of activities, including the limitations encountered and the pivots done to manage them. The Results section (IV) is a summary of both qualitative data obtained through focus group discussions and key informant interviews, and quantitative data on the students, including their test scores. The Analysis (V) is a more in-depth discussion of the evaluation results, accounting for several factors that affected implementation and data gathering. The final parts will offer Recommendations (VI) in terms of policy and implementation, and Conclusion (VII).