CAN’T WAIT TO LEARN
Can’t Wait to Learn brings innovative, flexible and effective
learning opportunities to those children who need them most:
children excluded from education due to conflict.
NO LOST GENERATION: CHILDREN IN CONFLICT CAN'T WAIT TO LEARN
Children in emergencies urgently need and deserve
access to quality education. Currently, a whole
generation of children, eager to learn, is missing out.
But even where traditional education cannot happen,
meaningful and impactful education cannot wait.
This is where Can’t Wait to Learn steps in.
attractive to both boys and girls. Even children who
have never learned to read or write can learn with
these games.
In this programme, children learn by playing serious
educational games on tablet computers. The custommade games itself include instruction, practice, and a
learning management system.
Many different partners are working together to
develop this fun and effective learning tool: local
Ministries of Education, international and national
NGOs and research institutes, along with technical
experts in gaming, software design, education and
psychosocial well-being.
The fresh, interactive learning materials are all based
on official national curricula. The educational games
are introduced to children in a manner fitting their
Can’t Wait to Learn gives vulnerable children, affected lifestyle and circumstances. For example, in informal
by conflict, vital learning opportunities. No matter
learning centres for refugee children, at village level,
where they are.
or in schools.
Can’t Wait to Learn is evidence-based, and is
Building a better future in education
Can’t Wait to Learn provides quality education to
children, even in places where there are no (or not
enough) school buildings or teachers. This programme
was successfully piloted as e-Learning Sudan, where
it proved to be empowering, flexible and cost-effective.
Can’t Wait to Learn supports and supplements the
traditional education model in conflict-affected areas
in the short term, without displacing it in the long
term. This programme enables children in conflict to
eventually acquire Certificates of Primary Education,
and to enter into formal education systems.
Moving forward
This programme started in Sudan with one subject,
mathematics, covering the first three years of the
out-of-school curriculum. Now we will start to cover
other subjects, years and move to other settings.
Can’t Wait to Learn is currently scaling up to respond
to the education needs of Syrian refugees and host
communities in the Middle East. At the same time,
we are expanding the scope and reach of our work
in Sudan. To ensure continuation of quality and
commitment to evidence, scaling is done in phases.
In upcoming programme phases, we will integrate
psychosocial support and life skills interventions into
the programme. So that children’s resilience increases,
thereby preparing them for a positive future.
Children learn mathematics with tablets, in villages without
schools or teachers. Local facilitators, trained in child-friendly
approaches and technical aspects, supervise the children while
playing the games.
In the Middle East, this programme will be adapted for both Syrian refugee children and local children. They will learn in both
formal and informal school settings in cities, villages and refugee camps.
EDUCATION AND CONFLICT
Access to good quality education is a fundamental right for all children. All states are obliged to
provide education.
However, millions of children continue to miss out on their education - and their chance of a future - as
the result of conflict.
Currently over 30 million children in conflict areas are out-of-school. That is 42% of the worlds’ total of
primary-aged out-of-school children.
Education transforms lives. Schooling is a key to providing children and families with hope and
stability. With tools and skills for a better future. It builds capacity to cope with conflict - and to help
prevent conflict in the future.
Education is vital to breaking cycles of poverty and instability, and empowers future parents and
leaders.
ABOUT THE GAME
Can’t Wait to Learn (CWtL) offers easy and understandable educative games, with child-centred design.
During playful exercises, children learn what they would learn in a traditional school. All games
are custom-built, with open source software.
•
Graphics used in CWtL are familiar to children. Children’s drawings are used in designing the
learning environment.
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All instructions are in audio and video. Children who cannot read or write, can listen and watch the
instruction videos as many times as they like.
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Children present the instruction videos. They explain new numbers and mathematic concepts.
Children can relate to these presenters, see them as role models. “She is like my big sister,” said
one child in our pilot study, “If she can do it, I can as well.”
•
Children discover how their skills are directly applicable in their own lives. In one game, children
own a shop that they can improve by doing mini-games. In another game, children help another child
to build a hut - and to become a goat herder, brick maker, teacher, nurse or another of in total
twenty jobs.
•
The educational games start simply. Children who already have some knowledge can quickly go
through the games. After completing a series of exercises, the software automatically unlocks new
exercises at a higher level, making it possible for children to progressively acquire new skills and
competencies.
•
The game provides immediate feedback to children on the correctness of answers, using audio and
visual elements.
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The game allows children to learn at their own pace. We pay a lot of attention to educational and
motivational aspects of the games.
•
The game allows children to go back to previous activities whenever they want.
•
In our pilot studies, children played the mathematics game 45 minutes a day. This was enough to
acquire the required skills. This also meant that children still had time for other activities.
•
The open source software of the educational games has been designed in such a way, that games
can be adapted to new contexts (other countries and situations) easily and without high licensing
costs.
Screenshot of a game. Drawings done by
children are used in the software.
TIMELINE AND RESULTS
Rigorous research is a crucial element of Can’t
Wait to Learn (CWtL). The programmes’s progress
is analysed in each phase of development and
implementation, using both quantitative and
qualitative research methods.
3. Reading Trial, Sudan (2015 – 2016)
Scaled Trial, regarding reading, in Sudan. With 100
children from one state, plus a control group of 100
children. Core research question: Can children learn
to read using this method?
1. Proof of Concept, Mathematics, Sudan
(2012 – 2013)
Six weeks of testing the project on a small scale.
Core research question: Can children learn using this
method? With 66 children (57% boys and 43% girls)
in three remote villages, plus a control group of
twenty children. The results showed that all children
had learned and greatly improved their mathematic
skills.
The trial will test whether and how aspects
of learning to read (like letter recognition,
comprehension, vocabulary) can be learnt via
serious educational games. This trial will inform
future development of the full reading curriculum.
2. Scaled Mathematics Trial, Sudan (2014 - 2015)
589 children (boys and girls) testing the project in
nineteen Sudanese villages.
Core research questions: Can children learn over
a prolonged period of time using this method?
What are the psychosocial effects? Is the approach
effective compared to traditional education?
Results showed that:
•
Children learn significantly from the game,
with those who know the least learning the
most.
•
The game is gender neutral and promotes
a gender balanced learning experience, which
stimulates and retains boys and girls equally.
•
There is a measurable positive effect on selfesteem experienced by children engaged in
CWtL.
•
Compared to traditional education
approaches in Sudan and selected countries,
CWtL is more effective in supporting the
attainment of learning outcomes than
traditional education, when measured
using EGMA as the standardised assessment.
4. A. Entry and scaled trial, Middle East + Scale-up,
Sudan (2016 – 2017)
Scaled trial in two countries in the Middle East, with
14,000 children. Research questions will be defined
with local partners in each country. Again, we will
measure learning outcomes, psychosocial effects
and overall effectiveness compared to other more
traditional education approaches.
4. B. Scale-up, Middle East (starting 2018 – 2020)
As for scale up: we are working towards 100,000
children in three countries (Sudan and two in the
Middle East) by end 2020. We will produce full
curriculum based software for mathematics and
reading classes, grade 1 – 6, in three languages:
Arabic, French and English.
5. Handover/exit processes (2018 – 2020
and beyond)
Commencing in 2018, handover and exit processes
for Sudan will begin. The strategy is that the
programme will be handed over to the Ministry
of Education. By mid-2019, similar processes will
commence in the Middle East.
In the future, all learning materials can quickly and
cost-effectively be adapted, for all major refugee
contexts in the Syrian region, in sub-Saharan Africa
including the Sahel, in West and in East Africa.
Photo: Jo Harrison
Syrian children in Za’atari refugee camp, Jordan. Almost 50% of Syrian
refugee children living in countries bordering Syria cannot access education.
PARTNERS
All partners working within Can’t Wait to Learn share
one vision: to work together to develop a model that
offers out of school children, affected with conflict,
access to quality education. Each partner contributes
its unique knowledge, expertise and strength.
How we started
During the pilot and trial phases of this model, called
e-Learning Sudan, the partners involved were: War
Child Holland, the Sudanese Ministry of Education
and Ahfad University of Women in Khartoum, in close
cooperation with TNO (Netherlands Organisation for
Scientific Research, an expert research agency).
TNO and Flavour.nl developed the computer games,
with support from creative and educational partners
in Sudan. These first phases were financed by the
Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Netherlands and
UNICEF International.
For more information:
www.warchildholland.org/cantwaittolearn
UNICEF chose this project as one of five UNICEF
‘Innovation in Education’ projects worldwide. Projects
which UNICEF believes have transformative and
scale-up potential and address issues of equity and
access. While strengthening education systems and,
most importantly, delivering strong learning outcomes
in a child friendly way.
In 2016 Can’t Wait to Learn was selected as a Dream
Fund Project, by the Dutch National Postcode Lottery.
Can’t Wait to Learn also received long term support
from IKEA Foundation and other donors. This funding
enables us to really make a difference in the lives of
large numbers of children affected by conflict.
In the next few years, we can thus expand, scale
up and develop Can’t Wait to Learn in a number of
countries in Africa and the Middle East. In these next
stages, new partners will be added to the partners
with which we already work.