Rationale

Moheshkhali is a coastal island, situated in the southeast of Bangladesh, and because of its geographical position, it is vulnerable to all types of hazards. Because of the remoteness as per the District ranking tables by the indicator of UNICEF published in 20091 the pre-primary school attendance rate falls under the below-average category. Literacy rate 30.8% in 2011. (Male 30.5% and Female 31.1%) and the number of government primary schools 47, Number of teachers 286 (M 142, F 144). Considering the situation, alternative and innovative measures are required to meet the quality education need of the primary school children of Moheshkhali.

The project was aimed to overcome geographical distance through ICT to spread the light of quality education in Moheshkhali Island using the Online School model of JAAGO Foundation with the help of high-speed internet. Under this project, three teachers from JAAGO’s teacher’s training center situated in Rayer Bazar, Dhaka taught the English language to about 2,000 students across three primary schools with the help of e-learning services. JAAGO executed the project from two separate sides. One was the distance learning education program for the English language and capacity development of school end teachers (local teachers). The local teachers or school end teachers received training throughout the project period on basic computer skills and maintenance of IT facilities.

Objective

To create distance learning equal opportunities for school-going children of 10 primary schools in Moheshkhali Island of Cox’s Bazar through ICT technology.

Activity Details

JAAGO collaborated with the International Office of Migration (IOM) and the Government of Bangladesh (GoB) to provide English Language teaching through the distance education program to 9,300 children in Moheshkhali Island with 10 government primary schools funded by IOM and Korean Telecom. JAAGO developed 1 online course, including 13 videos for teacher training on classroom management techniques in Muktopath (An open and free e-Learning platform) free of cost with a2i (Access to Information), which is highly used and appreciated by teachers. Currently, more course contents are under development.

The first and second phase of this program was completed with the focus to provide high-speed internet network service in all ten schools, with well-equipped multimedia classrooms set up and building up local capacity in the usage of various online tools. Both phases have contributed significantly to meet the objectives with multiple challenges. Around September 2019, IOM and JAAGO Foundation completed its third phase of the distance learning program’s operation to make the changes and meet the project’s objectives. The third phase of the project specifically targeted to develop a sustainability plan and institutionalization of the project interventions to provide long-term benefits for both school teacher students and community people. This phase significantly improved access to existing online educational content and enhanced knowledge on English language and literature using digital content and multimedia classrooms for 4,000 students of class 1 to class 3 of 10 targeted project schools.