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Phone-based tutoring improves learning during school closures
Felipe Barrera-Osorio is in the Department of Leadership, Policy, and Organizations, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, Tennessee 37212, USA.
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Student test scores show that levels of learning are low globally, especially in low-income countries1. This problem is compounded by school closures caused by events such as extreme weather, natural disasters, teacher strikes and holidays, but there is limited evidence about which policies are effective at reducing, or even reversing, learning losses. During the COVID-19 pandemic, many education systems closed schools for prolonged periods of time, prompting the adoption of remote-learning strategies. Writing in Nature, Angrist et al.2 provide compelling evidence that phone-based tutoring and support can be effective ways to help children to continue learning during school closures.
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World Bank. World Development Report 2018: Learning to Realize Education’s Promise (World Bank, 2018).
Angrist, N. et al. Nature https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-026-10990-x (2026).
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Bold, T., Kimenyi, M., Mwabu, G., Ng’ang’a, A. & Sandefur, J. J. Public Econ. 168, 1–20 (2018).